Customer Reviews

Modern Chord Progressions

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Ted Greene is one of those rare individuals who has made it his life's work to teach harmony on the guitar. In this book, Ted takes you down the road to a greater understanding of how chords can be strung together to create harmonized musical phrases. The book is not for the beginner or for the faint of heart. It is best digested slowly - say a page at a time. The best favor you can do for yourself is to attack every chord and every phrase analytically. Play every harmonic phrase slowly and cleanly until you can do it perfectly. Take apart each chord and make sure you know what the harmonic function of each note in the chord is. By that I mean mentally (or physically) label every note on each string in the chord with it's corresponding scale degree - R 3 5 b7, etc. If a chord is named F7b9#5 figure out why. It took me over a year to work my way through the book. It can be done! Now go practice.

Ted Greene continues the lessons taught in Chord Chemistry, treating chord progressions in the same exhaustive manner. He takes a progression (say, I-vi-ii-V7) and demonstrates a large number of chord combinations, many of which lend themselves to creating melodic lines. At first look, it appears to be nothing more than page after page of four-chord groupings, but as you work through this book (and it will take you some time), you realize that you're not just playing chords, you're making music, and before you know it, you find yourself escaping Ted's world and finding your own way around the fingerboard. This book, like its companion, is not particularly well laid-out; the chord diagrams are drawn in, and the text, though typeset rather than typed, still contains a few handwritten notes, but again, it was a product of its time (the early 1970's) and Ted can be a very funny person. Toward the end of the book, he has a handwritten note that says, "If you haven't cussed me out by now, you will after you try these." Don't expect to get through this book in a couple of weeks, but it will become as much a fixture in your library as Chord Chemistry.

This book is awesome... But it's only really useful in terms of serious long-term study. I'm an intermediate level guitarist, and it took me very long just to get the first couple of progressions on the first page mastered. Mr. Greene does not shy away from using difficult or akward voicings in his progressions..., but they are so well thought out in terms of the progressions that any easier voicings would totally ruin the nature of the progression. The voice leading is simply beautiful, and ted greene has a very nice, compact, visual way of displaying the progressions so that they take up very little space. Melody is emphasized in the progressions. Overall, they do not sound like something you would use as comping patterns, but more like something you would use if you were composing (spontaneously or written out) beautiful guitar music of the highest order.

No rhythms are provided in the book... it is all just chord diagrams one after the other.

I also need to emphasize the vast number of progressions that are in this book. It is truly a lot of bang for your buck, and i cannot imagine anyone ever being able to internalize all of these unless they spend a few years devoted to practicing these voice leading exercises.

This book stands head and shoulders above a lot of the music books today, because it has so much information in every page, and so much music in every progression. A typical hal leonard book presentation (with standard notation, and tablature written out) would allow about 1 fifth of the information in here into a book of 100 or so pages. I like these old-school style books, with just chord diagrams or just standard notation with fingerings. We should all be learning how to read. Man I hate tab..., space-consuming garbage IMO now.

This is a staggering book, let me say. I've had it for a long time, and worked through it more than once, and I come back to it for fun and inspiration, as well as using it with students.

The meat and potatoes of this book is that Ted Greene (an absolute legend of guitar harmony) has taken a series of chord progressions (among them I vi ii V, III7 VI7 II7 V7, and others) and then written out hundreds (hundreds!) of great voicings that go through that progression. You'll get all the inversions, and how they lead into great dominant chords.. but more often than not, it's up to you to provide the I chord. (which makes for a great challenge, and you're more than up for it after going through his progressions!) You'll see a variety of colorful dominant 7 chords (covering just about every sound the various extensions can give you), especially during the last section!
There's also a great teaser section about bass note progressions (and a hint of a future book.. maybe its out there somewhere?), and each section is preceded by a few words from Ted about what is to come, and encouraging the player to remain patient..!

If you want a sample, go to the Ted Green tribute/homepage and check out the lessons section. But really, this is an absolutely essential book, and just about every jazz guitarist on the planet has worked through it at some point or another.

I'm taking Jazz guitar lessons, and this book has helped me to peek ahead and see the dizzying number of permutations for all of the commonly used chords and voicings. There's no easy way to learn jazz, but if you work through this book, you will know a lot more by the time you finish it.

It's not a reference or a book of practice exercises. But if you want to slowly and steadily increase your knowledge of how Jazz works, get a decent teacher and learn one version of one of the progressions in this book every night.

With the purchase of "Modern Chord Progressions" a few weeks ago, I completed collecting all of Ted Greene's amazing publications. His approach to writing may be considered a bit unorthodox, or dated, to some as they were originally written in the 1970's using less sophisticated publishing techniques (For example, all of the chord diagrams are filled in by hand and there are notes and arrows scribbled in by hand on the pages). The result is that they have a homespun feel to them and I actually really like it; it's refreshing, in contrast to most of the slicked out books offered these days, and perfectly complements his warm, genuine, and humorous personality which shines through in his writing.

I've learned, and continue to learn, so much from them as they contain a wealth of information that will, literally, take years to get through. The depth and detail with which he delves into applied music theory and harmony is incredible, so be forewarned. His books are not for the beginner, the timid, or the impatient, as each books require a great deal of perseverance to get through its myriad of examples, ranging from simple to extremely difficult, even for seasoned players. However, the effort is well worth it and you will grow so much as a musician, particularly in the all-important skill of voice leading, of which he was a master.

I was sad to learn that he passed in 2005 at only 58. However, his legacy and contributions to the field of music education live on in his wonderful books that I highly recommend for anyone seeking the ultimate teacher; someone who can help guide you along the incredibly rewarding journey to musical knowledge and mastery.

Years ago I spent hours and hours learning these chords and highlighting my favorite sets of chords (I still do it, but now with Mick Goodrick books). Nice thing about this book is that the chords are given in context-jazz harmonic progressions. Of course you can replace the chords at will, but you have something to start with.

The author starts with the simplest chords within progression and than using "reharmonization techniques" develops more complicated sets of chords.

-Zoran R.

I have owned Chord Chemistry for almost half life and just in recent months began to really appreciate Ted Greene's work. I highly suggest owning all of his books, maybe not Single note Soloing unless you are really serious but Modern Chord Progressions and Chord Chemistry are necessary. If you wnat to get better at guitar I suggest using the wealth of knowledge that Ted has in his books and on his web page. He is a legend and a kind man to put so much work into helping others learn music/guitar. I have said it before and will say it again, my most heartfelt thanks go out to Ted Greene, his family, all of his students, and anyone who helped with his writiings.

There is no easy path to great chord work on the guitar. Make sure you know where you want to go. If you are a beginner I would always recommend Mickey Baker's how to play jazz and Hot Guitar. This book is much more like and encyclopedia despite Ted's good intentions.

Observing people who have demonstrated a fluency in their instrument, and, using this information to develop one's own ideas are the benefits of study.
Ted Greene is able to convey his passion for playing the guitar. He communicates his musicianship with his writings. Tab and other music notation accompany his chord studies. He is a highly recommended resource.