Ted Talks Music Theory

Jazzaferri

I had not heard of Ted Greene and his music. Serendipitous moment for me. Just what I needed to hear at this time.

I will enjoy listening to his music. Any album recommendations would be gratefully acted upon, @Bob Holo and @NylonDave

Thanks for posting and the insight to the man.

NylonDave

Glad you are enjoying Ted Jazaferri, and who wouldn't.

Here is a link to Francoise Leduc's Youtube page there are a few original recordings of Tedd synced to Francoise' transcriptions.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzlMsy46uESj-SKro7oFYJw/videos

Here's the Ol' Man River with the intro that Martin Taylor lifted for his first solo record.




If anyone wants to find more Ted resources or help out his estate then here is his, still lively, website.

On the page I have linked to you can listen to he and his teacher talk music in a way that the conventions of public discourse (set by DJ's and English Lit graduates) and hagiography seldom allow.

http://www.tedgreene.com/audio/TedGreene_GeorgeVanEps.asp




D.

pickitjohn

@NylonDave

Thanks for the link to the Ted Green George Van Eps interview on the Ted Green website

I found this quote of GVE very resonate to me...



>-

NylonDave

Yeah. It is all about making lines.

Christian makes the point very well in his youtube lessons when he points out that whether the band are playing

F, Fm, C,A7

or F Gbdim C/G A7

or F,Fm,EmA7

Also Dm,Dm7b5 etc or F Bb7etc and on and on



the same lines will work.

And there is a great way to explore the truth of this. Take a really simple folk song or nursery rhyme and turn it into a swing tune and find out how many different ways it can be harmonised and still be just three chords at heart. Then pick a swing tune and try and get to the three chord version.

And when you have done that play over a swing tune and just play lines thinking about the three chord version, how do you like it ?

If you can get a hold of George's book he writes out ways of exploring the sounds. I wouldn't recommend Sal Salvador's books though ( I think that this is the pupil he is alluding to in the interview on the Tedgreene website). Ted was lucky enough to study with George in person and to hear the sounds that the books describe. I wonder sometimes that if he had just had the book alone and wasn't a great sight reader he might have rejected George's advice out of hand with the arrogance of youth.....

I was also reminded of this lesson by Julain Lage who is dealing with the issue of swimming around in harmony directly.





D.

Jeff Moore

pickitjohn. That jpg is unbelievable. Yet watching him play is also witnessing something out of the ordinary, and the jpg is a short explanation of what your witnessing when he plays.
When I'm playing over a tune, the furthest I get in that direction is to quit mentally naming the chords coming up. It gets a little automatic with practice, but I'm certainly still semi consciously anticipating exactly that chord, but the letter name disappears. His jpg sounds like algorithms, lots and lots of em, as many as there are possibilities he's contrived pertaining to "where to go" next.

Jazzaferri

I am left wondering why he is not more widely known. Remarkable musical mind.

Russell Letson

From everything I've read and heard about him, Ted Greene was the very definition of "shy and retiring," which is not the same thing as inarticulate (or, apparently, suffering from stage fright). He made only one commercial recording, but he was so generous about letting students record and video him that there's quite substantial documentation of his playing, as well as of his explanations of how he thought about the music. I'm far from being able to absorb his technical advice but still find him endlessly interesting to listen to, whether he's playing or commenting. There's a completely charming video of him playing at a wedding reception, sitting off to the side making wonderful music, and clearly not concerned with being "on stage."



("'Til There Was You" has some nice surprises.)

Jazzaferri

Does really matter whether you understand his words too well as long as you hear his accompanying music while he is talking.

Leaves me thinking on Django's solo pieces and what he would have done had he accessed a more modern electric guitar design a la 335 or Gretsch or indeed solid body

NylonDave

Jazzaferri wrote: »

Does really matter whether you understand his words too well as long as you hear his accompanying music while he is talking.

Leaves me thinking on Django's solo pieces and what he would have done had he accessed a more modern electric guitar design a la 335 or Gretsch or indeed solid body

I also wonder what he would have done had he sightread through these(below), not that the printed page was the cutting edge of technology even in the time of Weiss, who was a fan of tablature which is the oldschool way of writing for plucked strings.

Bach, JS, was an admirer.(sorry another wiki quote)

'In later life, Weiss became a friend of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and met J.S. Bach through him. Bach and Weiss were said to have competed in improvisation, as the following account by Johann Friedrich Reichardt describes:

"Anyone who knows how difficult it is to play harmonic modulations and good counterpoint on the lute will be surprised and full of disbelief to hear from eyewitnesses that Weiss, the great lutenist, challenged J. S. Bach, the great harpsichordist and organist, at playing fantasies and fugues."'

Michel Cardin the great Canadian lutenist always seems to get to the heart of the music, and thank goodness not only for the dots but also for the people who know how to use them. Sight reading is like any other reading out loud , everyone thinks that they can do it but there are very vert few Richard Burton's.



I had a really nice counterpoint teacher called George Taylor, he called the art

'the forgotten subtlety of a bygone age'.

I personally am waiting for a wheel with a tremolo arm.

D.

Jazzaferri

Nice Lute music very well played. I have been revisiting the Goldbergs of late., and I think JS was an absolute master at getting really melodic interior lines.

One of the bands I am in is shifting our focus so after nearly a 23 year layoff I am madly practicing fingerstyle again. Bought a lovely old Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman for the fingerstyle pieces we are doing. Yikes, soooooo different from GJ and it's been 45 years since I last put on an electric in anger. Anyway, all this is coming at such a perfect time in my musical life.