Ted Greene

Greene died in his apartment in Encino of a heart attack at the age of 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.

Although not well known to the public, Greene was respected by guitarists. Guitarist Steve Vai has praised Greene's musical knowledge and perceptiveness on Solo Guitar, stating that Greene "is totally in touch with the potential of harmonic constructions" which allows him to create an "organic and inspired listening delight." In a 1982 discussion with Robert Fripp, John McLaughlin described Greene as "really unbelievable", noting that "it's so difficult to move around on a guitar in the harmonic way one can do on a keyboard...He's the only guitar player who accomplishes this thing that really turns me on."

Greene recorded one album, Solo Guitar, which was produced by William Perry and Leon White, and released in 1977 on PMP Records. The album contains no overdubbing (recording on multiple tracks).

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. He was again called on in 1977 to provide guitar tablature for three arrangements of Bix Beiderbecke's piano music for the Ry Cooder album Jazz, which Byrd arranged and produced.

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

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

Although Greene is often regarded as a jazz musician, he played many musical styles. He was known to guitarists for his role as a music educator, which included private teaching, seminars at the Guitar Institute of Technology, columns for Guitar Player magazine, and his instructional books on harmony, chord melody, and single-note soloing. A voracious reader of almost any book on music theory, especially from the common practice period (circa 1600–1900) he distilled complex concepts regarding the structure of western music and would write out more accessible versions for students to understand (handed out to students in the form of lesson "sheets"), often applying keyboard concepts to the guitar. For example, many transcriptions of the chorales of J. S. Bach would be re-written for guitar with useful analysis applicable to any musical setting.