S E S S I O N S

Monk on Guitar
B Y G A R Y W I T T N E R

THELONIOUS MONK ON GUITAR! SOME SAY IT CANT

be done, but Ive been working at it for almost 20 years and have
learned more from this process than from all my music college ed-
ucation. The point isnt necessarily to sound like Monk, but to in-
troduce distinctly non-guitar concepts and techniques into your
playing, thus making your voice that much more individual. And
if theres one thing we can agree on about Monk, its that he was
quintessentially individual.
Accented seconds. We usually think of a solos notes as having
various degrees of tension. This tension is created by the relationship
between a given note and its accompanying chord: Cn against a C
major chord has no tension, while D or B has more, and F# or Db
more still.
Monk, however, went a step further. He was able to create tension
in that Cn against C majoror even in a single note with no chord!
He did this by playing a secondary note a major or minor second
above or below the primary note for a brief instant. By releasing
the secondary note, hed accent the primary one.
The tension is created by the interval between the two notes and
the relationship of each to the chord of the moment. However, if
you lift off the secondary note quickly enough, the effect is that the
Ex. 3
primary note has tension by itself.
Get tense. Play Examples 1-5 to experience single-note tension.
44 b J n J b j b j
The half-note is the melody or primary tone, the eighth-note is the
secondary, tension-providing tone. Each example lets you hear major
===============
&
and minor seconds first below and then above the melody.
Play both notes and then lift off the tension note while letting
the melody note sustain. Playing fingerstyle gives you more of a piano T 5 5 5 4
A 8 9 8 8
sound. Pick players: An upstroke accents the upper note, while a B
downstroke emphasizes the lower. g

Ex. 1 Ex. 4

44 J # J j b j 4
===============
& & 4 J # J
=============== j b j

3 3 3 2
T
6 7 6 6 T
A A 5 5 5 4
B B 8 9 8 8

Ex. 2 Ex. 5

44 J # J j b j 4
===============
& & 4 J # J
=============== j b j

T
3 3 3 2 T
A
5 6 5 5 A
B B 7 7 7 6
10 11 10 10