![]() ![]() So I quit college in ’66, handed in my books, and never graduated. Then in ’65, I got hired to teach by a guitar store and I started to know right around then that I just had to do it. TG: In late ’64 I started teaching house-to-house. RCJ: When did you decide to make music a full-time career? And even got me a Duane Eddy book when I longed for that. He was a great player and he helped me a lot. But then I did take guitar lessons in the fall of ’57, from a man named Sal Tardella, one of the great legion of Italian East Coast jazz guitar players. I loved hearing my mom play piano, but I just couldn’t do it. Let’s just say that I tried to play piano. RCJ: Did you have any formal music training as a youngster? We didn’t have Elvis or Hendrix, not to mention Jimmy Reed. In those late forties/early fifties-I was born in ’46-a lot of what America listened to was Tin Pan Alley’s product, and a lot of that was inextricably bound up with show tunes. TG: Yep, they had those shows on right from the beginning. Is this linked to your parents’ musical influence? RCJ: Your recording Solo Guitar consists mostly of Gershwin and show tunes. My mom played pretty descent Gershwinesque piano and my dad played a pretty mean radio. ![]() I then came back out here in late ’63 and have been here ever since. TG: I was born here and moved to Cleveland as a kid, but I grew up in New York, in a suburb called White Plains. I caught up with this modern-day Renaissance man at his studio in Encino, California, where we spoke about music, history, and the Zen of guitar instruction. On his stellar recording Solo Guitar, Ted practices what he preaches, expressing his sublime yet stunning contrapuntal solo-guitar abilities. The treasury of chord voicings found therein stretch the mind, muscles, and joints (some of his fingerings I refer to as “Greene-achers”). His four books, including Chord Chemistry and Modern Chord Progressions, have been cited as essential texts by venerated players and teachers. A thoughtful and soft-spoken artist, Ted loves sharing his fretboard knowledge with those fortunate enough to make the pilgrimage to his humble home. Spock with the passion and soul of Ray Charles, the unassuming and humble nature of a Gandhi, and the expanse and depth of a modern day Da Vinci, and the product might well be chord alchemist and pedagogical guru Ted Greene. Enjoy!Ĭombine the logic of Star Trek‘s Mr. I just recently came upon this file on an old backup hard drive and decided to publish it here on my website. Sadly, Ted left us 10 years after this interview, on July 23, 2005. I had planned on finding an outlet to publish it, but never did. I conducted this interview with guitar legend Ted Greene in February 1995.
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