Ted Talks Music Theory

NylonDave · December 2015

Here is Ted Greene talking away and he touches on a lot of things. He even mentions Gypsy scales with less than seven notes.

Any way some of you might like it. I especially like the way he trashes some of the myths about music theory too many kids seem to pick up from magazines.

Ted takes his time, I like that.

D.

Jeff Moore · December 2015

Ted reminded me of:

I went back and watched a mess of Ted vids. Hard to know what to say. He's one off. Lots's of ideas/minute.

NylonDave · December 2015

Hi Jeff. Thanks for giving Ted a chance. And I am really glad that you enjoyed watching. I could watch him all day.

I think that Tedd is a rare example of someone trying to expand his musical horizons by trimming off the fat of half truths. It is the easy answers that so often turn out to be wrong, or prove the question wrongheaded.

And he was always pushing and learning never happy with simply exploiting his existing gifts and knowledge.

Some guys like to talk about the nuts and bolts of music others don't.

D.

Jeff Moore · December 2015

I can't follow his vocabulary, but I can "hear" what he's getting at just fine as he plays it. I watched other vids where he talked about and demonstrated popular musicians of the 50s - 70s, from the US and beyond, and played thematic riffs that characterize them with great zeal for those guys. That's a winner for me. He's encyclopedic. He's just as good when he doesn't say a word. Funny how we might think we've heard it all, and then.........
Approaching guitar "theory first" obviously worked for him but is so odd! But though he's "academic" in that way, he plays with a great natural feel.

Bob Holo · December 2015

One night over dinner I recommended an album of Mr. Greene's to a friend: “Have you ever heard of this guy? He got this big warm smile and said: “Yes, he was good friend and a wonderful person, and I miss him dearly.” We talked a lot about him that night and several times since. They grew up working together at the local music store, giving music lessons and gigging. Later they wound up in music education and doing studio work - Ted taught at GIT and did album work while Larry taught at USC & did film work.

The reason I say this, is to give background for why I feel compelled to paint Ted Greene in the way that he would likely want. I know you have a dramatic way of communicating, Dave, and I understand that your comments are meant well and out of respect for him, but it's not likely that Ted Greene would like the assessment that he “trashed” or “exposed” things. ;-). From quite a bit of conversation with Larry over the last several years, it seems that the most remarkable thing about Ted Greene was how gentle of spirit he was; how slow to criticize, and how utterly he focused on the personal development of his students. In terms of teaching style, he used whichever level of technical depth helped students become better musicians. If he appeared blunt – it was that he was a shy person who was more comfortable playing for an audience than speaking to one. My friend describes him as: “One of those people that – whether you last saw him minutes ago or hadn't seen him in years – it was completely comfortable being with him… you just picked up the conversation where you left off.” His music room was crowded with tall precariously-tilting stacks of books and charts and hand-written lesson plans. He was not the kind of guy who'd assign 10 pages of a lesson book with the flick of a pencil, but rather would write out a chart by hand, or heavily notate a chart to teach you the things he felt you needed most at that moment – or even just draw funny things on the chart to give you a chuckle and help you remember the point of the lesson.

So, technical giant though he was… he was evidently a very “gentle” giant.

NylonDave · December 2015

Good point Bob, I personally was not lucky enough to meet Ted.

I am sorry you think that I was throwing my angry voice into his gentle memory.

In all honesty though I find him a rare combination of entertaining and humble, intellectual yet humorous, rigorous but not pedantic. He never seems to be satisfied resting on his laurels or permitting the interesting to be unknowable.

In the first couple of moments of the video he says in deliberately pinched nasal voice 'I'm working on my modes' then in his regular voice 'what does that mean' and then he goes on to choose one mode,dorian, and train some ears. I am sure lots of us have had pupils who say they know their modes and then just go ahead and play C major with seven fingerings and think a mode is just that, a fingering pattern with no concept of sound attached.

I think he was bemused by the commonplace misuse of labels that did not help to trigger the memory of sounds. Of course he was more gracious than I have ever been, and smarter and more talented and with a better ear. But I have heard him throw up hands at the style of musical 'analysis' that became current with the magazine 'Guitar for the Practicing Musician' and spread through all the others for a few decades. Where lots of guys learned to break down music in a really unwieldy and unhelpful way. Pages of stuff describing a Steve Vai track with just two sounds (scalewise)....... pages.

These magazines were provided the basis of the musical view that a lot of the kids at GIT, where the presentation in the video takes place, were grounded in. Ted had a point and he got straight to it, but no axe to grind just genuinely wanting to help.

He remains a great role model and I do like that he takes the time to point out the holes in the dogma of whatever music theory is in vogue (or the common misapprehensions that accompany it) and suggests in it's stead suggests something that can actually be used.

And I like that he gave all styles a fair shake even finding something new and interesting in the harmony of Kurt Cobain.

D.

Bob Holo · December 2015

I didn't say that you had an angry voice, Dave, I said that you had a dramatic way of communicating, and that is exactly what I meant. The word 'anger' is your interpretation.

NylonDave · December 2015

@Bob Holo 'I didn't say that you had an angry voice, Dave, I said that you had a dramatic way of communicating, and that is exactly what I meant. The word 'anger' is your interpretation and positioning. '

Gentle has a range of potential antonyms. I chose the one that seemed most appropriate to conversation in general, that one was anger. Dramatic is not only not a particularly good antonym of gentle (unless the subject was acting, which it wasn't ) but despite your last post not a word you had actually used, nor is there a phrase similar to it on your original post.

You chose to caution me and I feel that I took that on the chin. You then criticised me for manner in which I accepted your criticism. Then you claimed to be making a different point than the one you had written. But that's OK, maybe your post will read differently tommorrow.

I feel happy to allow others to position me as they see fit. Then I make my own decision on whether or not I will stay at the table depending on the quality of the conversation,the quality of the hospitality, the amount of inside talk and the quality and honesty of the rhetoric.

D.