Ted Greene was one of a kind, a teacher’s teacher. Although he only released one album under his own name, 1977’s Solo Guitar, his contribution to music, through guitar teaching, is immense. The brilliant guitar instructor passed away at his home in Encino, California, on July 25 at the age of 58, leaving behind legions of inspired students and a catalog of superb teaching materials. Chord Chemistry, the comprehensive chord book which is his best-known work, has secured him high rank in the pantheon of guitar geniuses. A consummate teacher and eternal scholar, Greene’s commitment to music and his students is a testament to what is possible in the world of guitar pedagogy.

Pinpointing a Student’s Musical Personality
Greene was a gentle, caring spirit who extended himself far beyond the typical teacher-student relationship. “If you kept coming back and you became friends with him, he would go that extra mile, doing whatever it took to help you,” says Tony Darren, a longtime student and friend of Greene’s.

To Greene, teaching wasn’t just his job. According to his students, he felt he was entrusted with their musical development, and he took great care with that appointment. Extremely sensitive to his students’ level and interests, Greene would quickly pinpoint a student’s musical personality and assist them in their musical evolution. He’d get a sense of what someone liked by playing records and chord progressions for them. In Darren’s lessons, that attention even extended to chords. “He knew what I liked,” says Darren. “At the time, I didn’t know these chords, but he’d play major sevenths, major ninths, 6/9s, and I thought, ‘I love that chord.’” Greene would compile tapes for Darren and introduce the new voicings in increments.

Guitar Guru
Greene’s home studio was lined with stacks of books, records, and videos, and he had piles of amps and guitars. No distinction was made between living space and workspace. He could always be found with a guitar in his hands, most often his ’52 Fender Telecaster. Famous guitar players would seek him out for a lesson when they were in town. “Going to Ted’s was like going to Yoda’s den,” says Darren. “He always had bare feet, he never had shoes, and he never sat in a chair. He’d always sit cross-legged on the floor. And then, when we’d listen to music, he’d close his eyes and just kind of bob his head up and down and really get into it.”

Even though Greene was an expert guitarist, he was always able to meet people at their own level. If a student wasn’t getting something, he would find a different way to communicate the concept. “His mind was like an iron trap, and it worked a million miles an hour,” says Darren. “Sometimes I couldn’t keep up with it. Then, he’d break [the concept] down and simplify it to its most basic element. He wouldn’t stop until you understood it. You wouldn’t meet a sharper guy, that’s for sure. He was definitely firing on all cylinders.”

While writing out a lesson, Greene would have Darren play the material they’d covered the previous week. Never skipping a beat, he’d correct Darren without looking up from the paper. “He’d say ‘No, no, what was that chord?’” Darren recalls. “And I’d say ‘minor-seven-flat-five.’ And he’d say, ‘No, no, play it again.’ [If I made a mistake] he’d pick it out in a minute, but he’d never stop writing the next lesson.”

A Fountain of Knowledge
Greene covered so much ground in his hour lessons that most people found it necessary to record them just to keep up. “I used to have hours and hours of those tapes,” says Mike Rao, a guitar instructor at Blue Bear School of Music in San Francisco. “The time would go by really fast. You never knew what you were going to walk out with. It was really intense.”

In addition to the tapes, Greene’s handouts are the stuff of legend. His students remember how he regularly churned out comprehensive learning materials. “He’d have chord-melody arrangements laid out for ‘Prelude to a Kiss,’ ‘Misty,’ ‘Stella by Starlight’—every jazz standard you can think of,” recalls Rao. “He’d written all this stuff out by hand in the same way that he’d written all his books out. (The chord diagrams and fretboard charts in Greene’s books are handwritten.) He had this wealth of material laying around. I still have a lot of that stuff. Once in awhile I’ll Xerox it for a class, and I’ll mention to the students to make sure they look into his books.”