Ted Greene

Theodore Greene (September 26, 1946 – July 23, 2005) was an American fingerstyle guitarist, columnist, session musician and educator based in Encino, California.

Career Greene began his own guitar studies at the age of 11, and was an accomplished player while still in high school, occasionally collaborating with local rock and R&B bands. He briefly studied accounting at California State University, Northridge, but dropped out to devote more time to music.

In the 1960s he was a member of the rock band Natural Selection and a blues rock group called Bluesberry Jam, which included future Canned Heat drummer Fito de la Parra. He was a friend and collaborator with Joseph Byrd, on whose Columbia Masterworks album The American Metaphysical Circus he was featured (he also provided the whimsical name of the studio band who performed it, "The Field Hippies"). During the late 1960s and early 1970s he did commercial studio work with Byrd.

Ted Greene: Sound, Time, and Unlimited Possibility, by guitarist Terrence McManus, published in 2015, is the most complete analysis of Greene's work that exists.

Greene helped Fender design a 1952 Telecaster vintage reissue (their first such reissue) by making reference to his collection of old Telecasters, Esquires, Broadcasters and Nocasters.

Greene died in his Encino apartment of a heart attack on July 23, 2005, at age 58. In 2009 Barbara Franklin wrote the biography My Life with The Chord Chemist: A Memoir of Ted Greene, Apotheosis of Solo Guitar. She died on August 13, 2011.

Discography The American Metaphysical Circus by Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies (1969) Solo Guitar (Art of Life, 1977) Among Friends by John Pisano (1995) Conversation Pieces by John Pisano (1997) Mojo Blues by Will Ray (2002) John Pisano's Guitar Night by John Pisano (2007)

Publications Chord Chemistry, Alfred Publishing Company Modern Chord Progressions, Alfred Publishing Company Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing, Volume 1, Alfred Publishing Company Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing, Volume 2, Alfred Publishing Company My Life with the Chord Chemist: A Memoir of Ted Greene, Apotheosis of Solo Guitar by Barbara Franklin Ted Greene: Sound, Time, and Unlimited Possibility by Terrence McManus