Ted Greene Blues Study, December 1, 1978 and April 27, 1979
Compilation pages with notation by P. Vachon

Ted's Original Lesson sheets
GospelBlues_KeyOfA_TedGreene_1979-04-27.pdf

My compilation page, changes and comparisons
GospelBlues_KeyOfA_TedGreene_notation_grids_p1.pdf
GospelBlues_KeyOfA_TedGreene_notation_grids_p2.pdf

Ted began this sheet on “Gospel” Blues on December 1, 1978 and then finished it April 27, 1979.  It’s a 12-bar blues study in which he completed the first chorus, but just 4 bars of the second chorus. 

If you look at the first chord of each measure you can see the skeletal blues progression he was following.  Ted applied a “walking chord” treatment to the progression:  using inversions, substitutions, and I-IV-I or I-V-I to create some additional harmonic movement within each measure.

Measures 1 thru 3 use I-IV technique:  the first a bar as major, then a bar of minor, then back to major.

Measure 4 has a “fragment” D diminished 7.  Ted used the word fragment here because there’s no b5, just the 3b, root, and bb7 (or 6th, if you will).  The D dim 7 leads nicely into the first D of measure 5.
Measure 6 has some very nice triad moves that take you back to A. 

In measure 8, Ted wrote an option for the A to D7 chords:  “or A/3 then A/5 back to D7/3”.  The “/3” means 3rd in the bass.  The “/5” means 5th in the bass.
There’s some more diminished 7 “fragment” chords, and then a nice “retro” turnaround in measures 11-12.

Chorus #2 has some 4-note chords added in with the triads.  Ted stopped after the 4th bar, probably left as an assignment for the student to continue and finish using similar voicings and progressions.

On the top of Ted’s original sheet he wrote:  “1/2 step slides (with or without delays) can sound good occasionally.”  By “delays” he meant to break the chord up between melody (top note or notes) and the harmony (bass note or lower structure).  This is what Lenny Breau often did when playing chord-melody—it gives the impression of two separate parts.  Play one part first and then follow with the other part, which is “delayed.”  Don’t overdo though!
At the bottom of his page Ted wrote, “Dim chords in Country.”

Have fun with this arrangement!
--Paul