the JEDI MASTER of Guitar: Ted Greene 

Watch more of the very inspiring Ted Greene here: ru-vid.com

Ted is what you call a whale. Many guitarists don't see him above the water, but if you look below the surface, he is enormous. He went at it from the mid 60's and never aspired for fame or riches, just pursued music daily. He's the only guitarist I've seen play on a high level freely like a pianist does. Get his book Modern Chord Progressions, it will make you grow if you do the work. Unfortunately, he only released one album, in 1977, "Solo Guitar." It is phenomenal! Cheers

As a former student of Ted Greene, I must say that Ted was the kindest, warm, deeply caring of others man. I was honored to know. Ted was a true music missionary . Like many guitarist, I miss him very much. Thank you so much for keeping Ted's legend alive.

I studied with Ted in the summer of 1993. The man was a legend! It would take me hours to really tell you what the man could do on a guitar. Here's a great story... he had 4 TV sets on with 4 VCR recorders below them, while giving lessons. All 4 TVs were showing cartoons and all muted. He had remotes for all VCRs. I noticed that once in a while he would grab a remote and put a VCR in recording mode... so I asked him what the story was about. He started an amazing story about cartoons music composers which created some incredible music that was hard to produce and never got the ok... so these composers had free control on cartoon music content as nobody really cared. He showed me some cartoons with great music he would trascribe and learn from. Most of those cartoons were very, very old... and Ted was right! Great music in those tv shows for kids... music for the ones who have ears only! Thanks TED!!!

Ted is maybe the biggest underappreciated guitarist in history. His books are phenomenal, his lesson videos are unmatched, if you dig into his performances and reharmonizations they're just mind blowing. My favorite guitar player hands down. If anyone hasn't worked through Ted's 'Single Note Soloing' books, I highly recommend it.

Finally someone is talking about the master the legendary guitar god Ted Greene ❤️❤️✨✨

Tommy Emmanuel, he recommends reading Ted Greene's book named Chord Chemistry - I still have not finished reading it yet because its a whole universe of guitar wisdom. That's why Ted called it Chord Catastrophe 🙂

This video made me emotional. Firstly, I looked it up learnt that Ted Greene died in 2005, aged 59. And secondly, these harmonies! Such finesse. Thank you Lucas, for introducing this truly rare gem of a guitarist.

Lucas, this video is actually gold. I want to take the time to congratulate you for your effort, I can see you spent lots of hours into practicing for making this video and it was very educational and awesome to see while listening to your melodies. Your channel brings nothing but pure gold

How wonderful it would have been to have had just a single lesson with him - amongst his things in that tiny apartment such a talent passed along so much information, and often for just “whatever you can pay me” according to many reports. I hope those who sat in with him realize how lucky they were , and still are. Long live Ted, harmony god :)

That dude is so incredibly talented! It’s insane that he is able to play all of that and talk casually explaining what he is doing amazing. And tuning when it goes suuuuper slightly out of tune.

As a classical guitarist who specialises in Bach and Weiss, this guy is amazing! He has clearly listened to how Bach put his compositions together, developed themes and used counterpoint. Bravo Ted 👏

Occasionally, very occasionally, you find a video that opens a door to a whole new way of approaching the guitar, and boosting you out of the rut you've been languishing in. This is one such video. Tack så mycket Lucas!

unrivalled. I wish he recorded more than one album. he seriously grew my love for jazz, solo guitar, and telecasters.

One of my favorite guitar players talking about one of my favorite guitar players! 10/10 Lucas!🙌

Nicely done! I had the honor to study with Ted for more than 25 years and have released 2 tribute CD's to Ted. I host a weekly Ted Greene "Book club" through FB/zoom, where we get together and explore arrangements and worksheets. You are more than welcome to join us. We have been on hiatus but will be starting back up soon. I am always happy and grateful to see people working with Ted's ideas. Thanks for the fun video.

You, sir, are a rare gem. As a guitarist, and as a human being. I so enjoy your thoughtful (and sometimes very entertaining!) presentations!

This has to be one of the best lesson videos I've come across in a long time. Both from Ted Greene's example and your wonderful playing and analysis. I met Ted back in the late 90s at the NAMM show and told him I had his book, Chord Chemistry, which I had bought at age 14. I just started studying music theory and some of it was still Greek to me but he jokingly told me he wasn't happy about that book and he called it "Chord Catastrophe"! He said he wrote that book as an exercise and realized it was over many guitarists' heads. Ted was a rare gem and a master and I thank those who put up videos of his lessons and gigs for us to hear what an incredible musician he was. Thank you Lucas for showcasing Ted's work and his force in music.

You did it!!! Playing those beautiful baroque lines AND teaching! Ted would be proud!

my guitar teacher was a huge fan of ted greene and was talking a lot about him. I'm happy to see a video about him

Love Ted Green; especially the way he chooses to play certain chords (especially stretch chords) for tonal/ambience effect, even if they're in a difficult finger position, just to add that extra je ne sais quoi or emulate another instrument's timbre!

13:20 he started improvising Fly Me (Bach) to the Moon Great lesson! It's awesome to see some Ted Green recognition on youtube!

I'm really in love with Hendrix, Van Halen, Govan and other heroes. But if you call them geniuses , then who is Ted Greene. He's the one and only guitar god, that was born once in 1000 years.

I have never heard anyone improvise classical guitar before. That is pretty awesome!

not even 1 minute into your vid and I already know I have to click like button. This whole vid of you is an absolutely wonderful lesson too. Thank you for introducing us to such a great teacher, and for being one also, Lucas. :)

I've learned so much about this wonderful instrument from watching your channel. Your own wisdom, plus all of the wisdom of the fantastic guitarists you've introduced me too, has elevated my playing and appreciation for guitar to an entirely new level. Thank you, Lucas, for sharing your passion, knowledge, and enthusiasm (not to mention talent) with the rest of us.

Ted changed my life, No guitarist has been able to have as big of an impact as Ted Greene on me ❤️❤️✨✨

13:16 Fly me to the moon. Nice analysis, Lucas. I am never near the level where I can make use of this, but you sound great.

Amazing to see Ted do this so fluently with Baroque style instead of his normal Jazz- I had no idea he was this deep in ability with classical progressions and melody- this is SOOO much more interesting and accessible to me then the jazz component he usually delivers so expertly with- knowing he can do this with Baroque makes me want to dig back into Chord Chemistry- the voice leading and counterpoint here purely improvised is astounding. I can't believe how long he can keep going and keep it so interesting! I'm in! Lucas- I should point out and recognize your insight here is incredible- as is your playing too!

Had watched this many years ago and it just blew my mind. The man could create phenomenal melody lines on the fly! RIP Maestro. Ted Greene the legend.

Ted was my teacher in 2004. We lost him way too soon. I knew him well, and I guarantee he would have loved your playing and been a fan of yours as well.

That was awesome!!! As people said here in the comments, this was maybe THE BEST "tutorial" or "class" on how to easy understand the use of scales in the guitar (waaaaay better than classes that I had on the universities). THANK YOU and Keep Going :D

The first time I applauded after watching a guitar tutorial video. Magnificent work! Perhaps in the future you could discuss Ted Greene's book "Chord Chemistry"? I would be very interested to know what you think of it. Greetings from The Netherlands, Bob

The face you made at 1:51 was priceless. I had the same face during his entire improvisation. You just can't help it but smile because people shouldn't be allowed to get so good.

Hi Lucas, been a fan of your videos for a while but this particular one really struck a chord in me. I constantly come back to it in an attempt to grasp this beautiful concept. Thanks for turning me onto Ted and this wonderful way of visualising harmony on the guitar! If you ever question your place here in the sea of RU-vid, I would like to tell you that there will always be a place for someone with such a clear and direct teaching style as yours. And maybe more importantly, someone that can demystify complex concepts such as this one, which is not an easy task. Thanks for helping us mortals make as beautiful music as we can ;) All the best!

This was mindblowing. Whole world (especially guitarists) needs more Lucas Brar videos.

Thanks for this. of course I know Ted Greene and especially this video very well and I totally agree it’s pure gold. The most astonishing thing about his music and whole approach is his total indifference to effect. He just doesn’t care whether it sounds difficult, whether he astonishes his audience with some incredible skill or techniques - the only thing he really cares is music. The more one listens to him the more one realises how far from the crowd he must’ve been. And still is.

FINALLY!!! No one is ever talking about Ted Greene amongst all the RU-vid guitar aficionados. Chord Chemistry is an incredible book

Hi I just want to tell you that seeing you play and improvise inspires me so much and also seeing your modesty makes me immediately start playing and be happy. Thank you so much for all the amazing content you create and hope you continue if forever. Really thank you very much.

This is very inspiring and very helpful. I'm a passionate (classical) guitarist and your video gives me ideas to expand my musical focus. Thanks for that!

I want more free tutorials like this! OMG, I just unintentionally fell in love with music theory!

Dude, you are such the humble Jedi master, that I totally respect all that you do! BRAVO! You definitely on the same level of Ted Green, but cannot/will not admit it, which makes you just as great! Keep it going!

This video is really inspirational.He is so awesome guitarist.I did not know about him but now I know so thank you so much for giving me this information & make me know about him.

Ted Greene's " Jazz Guitar volume 2 " help me understand how music harmony works in general at the age of 14. I was stuck then and I didn't know what made music and the various sounds I'd been hearing my whole life , kind of like colors are I guess . This was 41 years ago in a small Tennessee town with little resources . I was almost in tears when I realized what I had discovered through his book . i was so happy and grateful then and still am to this day . Thanks Ted for you sharing with others , yo appreciamos mucho , and thank you Lucas for this video and link . At first I thought this was a lesser known classical composers piece who was influenced by Bach but he was improvising that ? ,,,, Wow ,,, really trippy !

As a guitar - and music in general - lover myself i composed a lot of songs over the years, but mostly by ear, hearing melodies in my head sometimes and trying to render them on the guitar as i can, with my not so great technical abilities. I have the chance of having a real good ear in general. By watching your vid i'm kind of jealous of this incredible musical knowledge that you have, this ability to "decrypt" music in its depths. But i'm also glad that i'm able, without all this knowledge, to compose stuff that my ears and heart feel like it's sincere ! That's the beautiful mystery and magic of music. Thank you for your content.

Hello Lucas ! I hope u doing well . I enjoyed this video so much and i appreciate your explanation of those scales movements . What took my attention the most is that in each video of yours when u play the classical guitar , you really make me crave more to hear you out . No one can play like you (everyone owns his / her sound in any instrument but not everyone attracts me ) . Please , share few videos of yourself playing classical music , jazz , anything , u really make me love the guitar even more .

This video was very eyes- opening for me, it was like someone broke the chains and set me free . You are both real teachers and masters. It is so nice to see somebody so good at art of music. I feel so inspired for learning more and humble when I see you playing. Keep the good work, best wishes from Croatia!

Thank you. I had seen Ted Green doing his counterpoint improvisation, but I didn't have the knowledge or chops to understand how to even begin. You have helped give me an in. An immense amount of practicing follows, but it is a quick reward kind of exercise. Even at its most basic, it impresses the listener and is a joy for the guitarist.

Thanks for helping explain a bit better what Ted Greene was doing. Excellent. For those interested in Ted Greene, he did an interview with George Van Eps in the August 1981 issue of Guitar Player that can be found on line. Ted took some lessons from Van Eps, and much of what Ted described about various lines in his improvs is similar to how Van Eps described what he was doing. In addition to the published interview, I managed to find on line what looks to be the raw transcripts from the interview, that has some stuff that was not included in the published version. The verbal interplay between Greene and Van Eps was amazing, and I am still trying to gleen the interview for ideas that I can incorporate. Your video looks like it will be a great help.

Absolutely one of the best. My friend almost started lessons by him, but unfortunately he died around that time.

Just fantastic! Ted's lesson, and Lucas' too, both are inspiring and great explainers, trying to simplify rather than obfuscate. The result is something very beautiful.

3:07 "Ask me whatever you need to" - remarkable teacher

Thank you for introduce me to this fantastic musician. I just locking at a two our seminar he held 6/6 -93.

One of the absolute best guitar videos I have ever seen in my life! Tremendously good work! I have to say that I love your lesson, the way you explain everything and guide the viewer in what you do. And it is also refreshing to see that you have a few minor mistakes here and there, we are all human, and it is nice to see that even the great guitar players (such as yourself) also make a few mistakes here and there. Great work once again!

Thanks for sharing Ted to such a large audience, truly no other like him

This is one of the more enjoyable videos I have seen. The conversational style really held my attention. I also appreciate you letting more of yourself to show through. Thank you for this.

Nice, one of my favorite RU-vid guitarists talking about how awesome one of my favorite guitarists was!

Wow, Lucas! Back in the day I had skimmed Ted's books. It looked like it was just zillions of chord voicings. I had no idea that he was also all about counterpoint, and improvised, no less. You're also very modest about how you've absorbed this so well. This is a huge revelation and mind expansion, thanks!!!

Very good job my man. Not many guitarists are able to discuss about Ted Greene's approach on guitar, but you really did very well with it. Thank you for this sharing. 🙏

I studied with Ted. Endless amounts of wisdom not only pertaining to guitar but all aspects of life as well. He would transcribe chord progressions on a page and give to you to study. Each chord was a book of information to Ted. He was the authoritarian on harmony and chord construction

Ted and You are both one of my day to day inspirations for still open my mind with my classical guitar. Thank you very much, Lucas!

I am a 58j.old Rock bass player and I am playing and practicing guitar as to improve my whole understanding and knowledge about music.. Harmony.. Composing etc... Man YOU ARE A GREAT TEACHER... and what you taught me the most..... PASSION... THX greetings from VIENNA in Austria

Amazing! Your work has paid off. I was once completely devoted to classical guitar, but time has passed. You've made me want to practice again. Thank you

Cool to see you do a video on this guy. A video of him playing at a wedding popped up in my feed and it sounded great! Real tasteful but creative playing.

Thank you for sharing Ted with me. This is just what I needed to reach the next level.

It is indeed because this was improvised that it is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen and heard. The tone, the phrasing, the progression, all incredible. The piece seems to speak as much as any written music could if not more because those who play already written music are like those who recite poems but those who can improvise are truly speaking from the heart in real time. What Mr Green played is recorded now and I'll add it to my list of favorite pieces, intentional or not.

You turned such a difficult topic into an amazing and really easy to understand lesson, thank you so much.

Thank you for shining the light on Ted Greene. A truly inspiring guitarist and teacher. He was even a better human being!!!!!

i heard ted greene 10ish years ago in university. i've been an amateur player since I was 18. in the last year i decided to change that and started practicing much more. i'm finally going back to lessons and i've noticed that what always pushed me to want to be better was ted's baroque guitar playing. and that's just from a period of maybe two days where i smoked a bunch of weed and watched videos of him lolol the guy was a true inspiration

So amazing to stumble on this. I recently got the Cordoba Stage and have been focusing on Ted Greene/Bach or Bach inspired techniques. This made me feel like a badass immediately.

Ted was my guitar hero for decades. Telecaster is my favourite guitar for jazz blues country, rock, indie...

Thanks for sharing, and for all your work man !! 👍👍❤️ I never learnt in a music school, and you are opening me so many doors for months... And even giving me a new taste of learning guitar ! I always said to my friends that Bach (and his genious friends) didn't visualised chords and harmony as jazz players do, and as we usually do as you said, but is mixing bass, medium and high melodies, with a shot of high level harmony, questions/answers... Happy to listen to it here, and to have learnt how to manage this 😃 Thanks again !

I got introduced to Ted Greene when his book Chord Chemistry came out. I bought it and went through it, not really knowing just what a genius Ted was on the instrument. He was mentioned by local guitar giants here in Toronto like Lenny Breau but I wouldn't have the full picture of his incredible abilities until You Tube came along and I began to see what Lenny and other guitar greats were talking about.

There are some fascinating videos on the "Jacob Gran" Channel were he explains the historical rules/formulas of how to compose various types of Counterpoint, Canons, Fugues, Imitation, Voice Leading, etc. He also explains he lessons actually taught to famous historical composers and their solutions to various "homework" assignments. It helps provide a deeper context to what Ted Greene was doing in his Baroque improvisations.

I never got to hear him play until youtube...as a kid in the early to mid 80's finding out about him through his books that somehow made it into my world was mind blowing.

at 13:15 that melody sounded a little like fly me to the moon. great video, truly enjoyed it

Thanks Lucas! Love, humility and fun! Oh yeah,...and practice! Enjoy!

I stop at 4.14 ..just to catch my breath...while I see him playing that and explaining it at the same time..just amazing master of the guitar universe!!!!

I have many hours of video and reams of paper lessons of my lessons worh Ted. Also my Ted textbooks are full of his hand-written notes. Some of my favorite insights are his blues approaches with major 9 voicings. Amazing how he can pull 2 worlds together that you would never imagine could be complimentary. Harp harmonics too. And Pastoral improvisation. Those are the thing we spoke of mainly. 1996-2000 were my lesson years.

I listen to him everyday. He’s a huge inspiration. One of the greatest musicians of all times

Many, many years ago, a roommate of mine had Ted Greene's book "Modern Chord Progressions" and one day I picked it up and started going through it. Although I was WAAAAY out of my depth in terms of my minuscule theory knowledge, his thorough and clear writing and teaching style allowed me to still understand parts of what he was explaining. And what I did glean from it was so cool that it completely inspired me to take lessons again focusing on theory . I continued working with that book and later picked up his classic "Chord Chemistry". I'm not a jazz guitarist at all, but I wouldn't be the player I am today without the deeper understanding of harmony that his material inspired me to study. Great musician and music educator.

Bro, I remember seeing this video, there is little which is inspiring after seeing this, this and Ted Greene improvising on Autumn Leaves. This inspired me to begin studying Bach on classical guitar to try and incorporate it into my jazz playing; it ended up taking on a whole new projection into classical music.

That's definitely one of the gold videos. Super helpful! Thank you!

man... i've been digging content of ted greene, you give me some enlightment about his playing, thank you so damn much! i hope you could explain more about his techniques or arrangements in the future videos, thankyouuu!

Amazing. I'm mesmerized just watching Ted.... just like you are. Incredible. Ted was obviously obsessed with wanting to have full command of his instrument and he became a guitar genius.

Bro. I've been trying to figure out what Ted was talking about for years and you figured it out! Thank you so much!

Now, after watching it many times I believe this particular video is pure gold

these concepts are so hepful for all instruments. i play the piano and learned so much from this vid. also your legato is outstanding

The thing at 5:20 seems like an AMAZING excercise! I can't wait to try it!!!

One of the most usefull guitar video on youtube in 15min... What a work!! Keep on posting this kind of stuff, cheers from FRANCE :)

Great teacher,musician and RU-vid video maker. Inspiring and lot of fun watching

Just waked up for your videos!!

Thank you for shining a light on Ted Greene. I love him and he is a total inspiration. And you aren't so bad yourself! I really appreciate your respect for him 🦚

Oh yeah, Ted is phenomenally creative and so firmly planted in theory his exceptionalism is otherworldly. I study bits and pieces of all his books regularly, so many gems therein... His brain held all this knowledge and was perfectly realisable at any given moment. Just Wow.

I’ve been practicing this ever since I first found this video. What a genius 🥰

Lucas I've seen this video of Ted Greene but to have someone explain they way you did on what he is doing is really nice of you. Thanks It is so amazing how something so complicated looking can be simplified and broken down for a student of the guitar to understand. Great Job!

A customer came in my amp shop years ago . He told me that he studied with Ted Greene . He then played a chord melody version of Take Five that was incredible . Ted Greene taught this fella well .

A true master. Not recognized enough in his lifetime. I bought his book, Chord Chemistry back in 76. The bible of chords for sure. Rest in music Maestro.

Ted Greene INCREDIBLE improvisation

Dont know what else to say but thank you. I just stumbled on to Ted just today and you are helping a lot!