Here's why Thelonious Monk's music is so hard to play 

I think monk said the greatest artist is he who is most himself. That also is why it is so hard. It’s an idea that transcends music.

Even Coltrane had to visit Monk's apartment many times to learn the tunes! Thanks for the insights Ron.

Monk's style comes out of the southern black church. I remember people playing like him as a child, I am 79. They were off beat because they really didn't know how to play piano. Just someone in the church with a since of rhythm would go to the piano and start banging and striking the keys on an old out of tune piano. He took this sound and sophisticated it, added his professional training and came out with a unique sound that set him apart. I don't think it can be imitated because it has to be felt from deep inside of the black experience. The experience of lack and not knowing that accompanied the newly freed people. I love this work because it reminds so much of when my grandparents took me to the little "sanctified" churches and the piano music sounded like Monk's.

It was a thrill to see your facial expression change when you hit an "unexpected" note and continued smoothly. Even as a lazy practicer I love your lessons, and do learn a thing or two!

I love the way you deconstruct jazz. Makes me appreciate it on a whole new level.

This video needs to be viewed by more people. Great stuff

The chords you are playing at 3:30 sounds so wonderful.. I try to keep up with you, as you upload a lot. Though I can't understand theory yet, you are a wonderful teacher!

Thanx, Ron.

Love it, thanks a lot!

The tune Ron plays is called 'Bemsha Swing' , composed by Monk over sixty years ago.

More like this, Ron, please.

Your enthusiasm alone makes me want to play monk too

Love it!

Loved the lesson, always dug Monk!

Thanks for sharing this Ron - I love listening and playing along to Monk. :-)

I sought this sort of video describing what’s going on after listening to body and soul about 20 times in a row. Well done & thank you!

This was a great video. Thanks.

Cool video and class!

Excellent!

your passion for these lessons and jazz in general are the best motivations possible ron, thank you and keep up the good work!

LOL! I didn't know Monk had a book. I have been trying to play him by ear.....because I like to listen to him so much!

Excellent video!

Thanks Ron, very well-presented and concise overview.

bless you :)

Great Video Ron. Really enjoyed it and learned some things too.

Bravo !

Thanks for this. Good question and good answer.

You're such a cool and informative teacher!

Keyboard Improv is so awesome. Thanks for the tips and demonstrating the techniques!

I am but a lowly rock and blues guitarist with pretty basic knowledge of theory, but I love love love videos like this because they help stretch my understanding of harmony just a little bit. Thanks for making these ideas accessible to people with less than deep theory training.

I wish I could have you as my teacher. I’m 67 years old, played guitar since high school and think that learning keyboard is the key to opening music. I hope you’ve enjoyed opening it for many students in your time.

Thanks for the really cool chord changes.

I never heard it like this but he’s using other modes in the left key (Oriental Scale in this case). The way you broke it done made me understand some of the foundation of his thinking

amazing video. i’m not even a pianist, but as a huge monk fan it’s great to get to understand the basics of his creations :)

Спасибо. Очень наглядно и доходчиво.

Great observations for those learning Monk's music. Thank you!

I'm just a bass player, but even for me the chord charts for his songs look weird. If I see his name on one, I know I always have to pay special attention. Now I have a better idea why that is. Thanks for that!

"Find the melodic pathways between these chords". Now this really intrigues me! Thanks!

Thanks this is great!! as a fellow piano player

What a joy! Congratulations

I was attracted to Monk's music for reasons I couldn't define (I just know what I like). Thanks to your explication, I like it even more. Thank you for doing the lifting for me!

Even those horn players you mentioned had many problems playing over monk's changes. None every really sounded natural over the changes except Rouse.

I LOVE MONK'S MUSIC. I THINK IT'S AN ORIGINAL AND VERY FUN JAZZ LANGUAJE🤗🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹

I looove this! The chords you play at 2:17 have entrapped me. I can't stop! I gotta figure them out. HELP!

In an earlier life I could have been a drummer in such a swinging situation. Now I'm trying to learn piano and decipher the childlike yet layered complexity of Monk's music. You did well, here, in explaining a few aspects of this monster musician.

I enjoyed your gift of explaining things.

I'm feeling enlightenment when listening to your analysis - lol - love your work.

WoW! Great video, Ron! Love your light-hearted, friendly approach, and insights into Monk harmonics. I can imagine you doing a video series~ “Jazz Theory:from a Monk Perspective “…🙂 I grew up on Monk’s music in the 60’s and 70’s, and didn’t find out that it was considered peculiar until the 80’s around when he passed away.

Heh. After you get the chords in your hand, then you get to work on that amazing rubato he did so effortlessly. I've tried to transcribe a few (such as Body & Soul) using various pro tools and it's just crazy. His left hand always sets such a rock-hard rhythm, and then all those crazy things start going on in the right. I love playing at playing Monk, and I'm blessed with big enough hands that his stretches aren't too hard for me (I'm pretty comfortable with a major-10 stretch in both hands in most keys). Still, I think it takes a lifetime of hard work to really get it right. I appreciate this video, and I'll definitely buy the book. I know it's kind of random, but if you ever feel the need to take a break from Thelonious Monk, try playing some of the traditional piano solos of the late Dr. John. Both offer "mysteries" -- things that you enter rather than solve, and that when entered open themselves to reveal more mysteries within them.

I’ve never heard this before, sounds like the inspiration for Coltrane’s Resolution?

Very astute commentary on the challenge of improvising on Monk’s tunes. Pianist Ran Blake wrote that Monk based his improvisations primarily on melodies rather than chord changes. In a Keyboard Magazine article about Monk, he wrote that melody was Monk’s “cantus firmus” for improvisation, using melody as the basis for a spontaneous polyphonic composition, and not simply paraphrasing.

And this is the way we learn stuff, even at our advanced age. I'm glad I found this video.

Wow you’re a Great player and teacher. This is so cool. Monk is the 🐐

great lesson professor, saludos desde México!

Wow. One of my favourites tunes from one of my favourite jazz piano master. Great job Jon. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and music wisdom. My I ask something? For those like me who are learning, could it be possible this lesson recorded from above for seeing your finger movements? thanks again

I’m not a piano player, but I’ve been a monk fan for over 30 years. While also a big fan of Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, NOBODY played like Monk. It took 20 years for him to make the cover of Time magazine, and credit his musical mind as utterly unique. Errol Garner’s style was also different from anybody, given that he never had any formal instruction. Good stuff 👍

I should’ve taken piano 🎹 lessons from you

wish i could play those chords, i dont know where to start. I already have so many habits built up that learning new stuff is tricky

Excellent! Thank you. Monk was really a very traditionalist composer, as you point out with your reference to the Gershwin song, "I Got Rhythm". Ron, what kind of piano are you playing? Is it a Baldwin?

Monk always insisted that his music was simple to play. Bemsha swing is in C with the bridge being the same but in F. It is Rhythm changes with tritone substitutions for the 3rd and 4th chords and some basic transitions between 4 bar sections. The weirdest thing about this song is that it (and a few other Monk tunes) end up in D flat. Perhaps Tom Lehrer said it best: "It's so simple that only a child can do it".

Great video! Can you share a link for buying the book?

Great points! Monk is actually someone who got me into jazz in the first place. Another thing I find that makes his music hard is putting your own take on it that is both true to his music and style, but doesn't sound like/copy him! THAT is the true challenge for me.

I was told this a long time ago that piano players were awed at Monks playing. Now I see and hear it and I like it.

The "Rythmn Changes" work from a theory standpoint, but sound so wrong!l Thanks for investing your time to further my musical education!

I also have a second question. Can you briefly explain to me what is so unique about Monk's song "Think of One?" I'm trying to understand it for a project. I would deeply appreciate some insight on it. Thanks again.

Monk's chords are the most exciting in all of jazz. Hear his solo version of I Surrender Dear on the Brilliant Corner LP to dig those chords. I broke down that song on a youtube comment. Will post it here if you like.

I really enjoyed your masterful explanation. It is so helpful in thinking about Monk's music. I do have a question, however. Why do you say Monk "avoided the issue?" Are you referring to the problem of composition? By the way, Monk himself once said, "If you know the melody, you can make a better solo, and you won't sound as if you're just running changes."

Hi Ron what is the name of the tune you use throughout the video, I couldn’t make out what you said at the start “something swing”

to understand Monk you must study Hans Groiner's corrected versions.

Alreet!

Love Monk. I think with his songs you have to improvise over the melody, not the chord changes. Anyways, it´s still so hard.

Soul timing, that's all.

What is the name of first song you play?

So my takeaway here is that those chord changes don't make for very tasty melodic extemporizations? And Monk didn't pursue that path for that reason?

Very nice. I think Charlie Rouse had the answers.

what's the name of the book?

What song were u playing at 2:14

Monk is great to listen to but so deceptive. Besides his great composing skills, he has this particular style and a certain swag to his playing. He hits a lot of the notes pretty hard, he really feels so loose when you hear him, but yet everything he does and especially all the dissonant stuff sounds so confident. Like imma drop this dissonant half tone interval right here and lemme drop it a few more times to make sure you get it. I mean I'm used to it but I can imagine someone hearing those opening bars of Brilliant Corners and thinking "what's up with all the bum notes?"

What are the chords??

Nicely explained and demonstrated. Funny enough, I remember you and I played together way back when with a singer who did a one woman show at a school building. During the rehearsal process the singer gave us one choice for a tune to groove on for our selves and the bassist picked Chick Corea’s “Rain.” It was a really hard tune for me but I’ve never forgotten the lesson and that experience Every once in a while I still try to get the drumming right. Great to see you teaching in the virtual world and I admire your presentation style. Take care! Luis

What kind of piano is this?

Red Hot Chili Peppers. Song - FU album - out in LA. RHCP tribute to thelonious monk

2:13

It's because it's a 16 bar melody and not a 4 bar melody like most pop tunes. You can go 4, 8, 12, or 16. Guys like Monk or Motzart went 16, but only because they had that creativity. That's the secret. I guess that's more of a composition note than a playing note, but that's what the melody is doing and why it doesn't sound like other music. Miles did the same thing. That's why they're the greatest of the American music composers.

Excellent…..Changes slightly reminiscent of Friday the 13th?

Cm - F over A - Ab6 - Dbm7 - C ? - hsuqia

hey!!! where's trinkle tinkle!!!

modal 🌝

Why does his piano sound like a steel drum?

Very Good! I'm a guitar player who studied the Masters such as Monk, Parker etc. My last teacher Chuck Wayne always encourage me to play "me". (Like the Masters)

interesting - he breaks in all down

My dog is named after him

Well not really . He starts of with turnaround chords , wrote the melody; then substituted original chords

Solo se suoni da almeno 20 anni, capisci Monk

Not hard to play. They're simple tunes but are taking full advantage of the augmentations of basic chords to add diversity in the solo. He used the whole tone scale as a catch-all for moving over the chords in this way. If you want the Monk sound, use whole tone scale whenever you can over his changes. It's easy, there are only TWO of them. BTW...realize that whole tone scale was a thing for during the early part of the last century. You could hear that shit in Stravinsky, Debussy, Chick Webb, Ellington etc... This influenced Monk and other musicians and so it sounds perfectly fine and exciting for them. So...look at basic easy changes to a pop tune, add the b5, b9, b7th, etc... and use whole tone == instant Monk. Don't use it too much. This is easy to do and too much of a vibe.

Every half-decent jazz pianist since the 50's uses substitutions of exactly the sort you're describing. That's not what makes Monk Monk!

DAMN!!! That was Astute, and zpleasant, too!!

Monk's music should show up like an inquiry for a pianist not an attempt at impersonation. Like what is functional dissonance to you? What is nonfunctional dissonance to you?

I never found his music hard to play

A lot of dissonance.