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Ted Greene Arrangement - June 6, 1997
Compilation pages by P. Vachon

Ted's Original Lesson sheet
ICantGetStarted_TedGreeneArr_1997-06-06_ORIG.pdf

My compilation pages, changes and comparisons
ICantGetStarted_TedGreeneArr_1997-06-06_NotesGrids.pdf

This jazz standard was written by Vernon Duke (lyrics by Ira Gershwin) for the 1936 theatrical production of Ziegfeld Follies, and was first sung by Bob Hope. Ted’s arrangement was written up during a private lesson with William Perry, and was filed in Ted’s “easier” or “level 1” arrangements folder. As with many of his arrangements, “easy” can mean one thing to Ted and something completely different to a beginner learning to play chord-melody style!

Among Ted’s files is a folder of “song fragments”—that is, little tidbits of songs that he wrote down for various reasons. He had one such fragment for a single line in this song, but in the key of B rather than C. I’ve incorporated that fragment into the second verse, by moving it to C (up a 1/2 step) and I’ve colored those chord diagrams in blue so you can see where they appear.

There’s considerable repetition in this arrangement—please forgive me for writing it without repeat bars—it seemed easiest to do it that way and also to be able to include the “fragment”, plus it makes for easy navigation.

The resolution from the Fm9 to the C/9 (measures 14 to 15) is especially nice. Also, I like the fill in measure 15.

The Bm7 in measure 20 could be fingered as 1,3,1,2 and then use your 4th finger for the X note. (I’m guessing that Ted did it this way.)  Or, you could finger it as, 1,4,2,3 and then lift finger 4 to play the X note.
           
In Measure 23 Ted offers the option of a G or A as the top note of the chord. Since the song’s melody is A I chose to write an A in the notation. For the smoothest sound of the Am7 move, finger it as:  1,1,1, then 1,1 for the X notes. Then for the square notes, use fingers 3 and 2. Use finger 4 for the diamond note.
           
Measure 24:  play the top D note twice on that D9 chord (Ted left it out). Oh, and go ahead and use your thumb on the D bass note if you want. Gee…Ted would probably have fingered it as 3,3,2,1,4, but that might be pretty hard for this “easy” arrangement!

I added the Cmaj13 at the very end because it felt like it wanted to resolve that way…but if you prefer you can just leave it hanging out there on the Dbmaj13. Your choice. I also like to add a sparkle of harmonics on the final chord as well.
 
Not much else needs to be said as far as fingerings go; the rest is all somewhat self-explanatory. I think you’ll find that this piece sounds better if you add a lot of right hand arpeggios, “rolls” and extra bass lines to fill it out a bit. Have fun with this nice offering from Ted.

--Paul



 
   
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