{"id":1983,"date":"2016-10-02T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/?p=1983"},"modified":"2016-10-02T12:00:01","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T10:00:01","slug":"thelonius-monks-list-of-tips-for-playing-a-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/?p=1983","title":{"rendered":"Thelonius Monk&#8217;s List of Tips for Playing a Gig"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Transcribed by soprano sax player Steve Lacy in a spiral-bound notebook,\u00a0Thelonious Monk\u00a0created a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2012\/09\/thelonious_monk_scribbles_a_list_of_tips_for_playing_a_gig.html\">primer of do\u2019s and don\u2019ts for club musicians.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a transcript of the text:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Just because you\u2019re not a drummer, doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t have to keep time.<\/li>\n<li>Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play.<\/li>\n<li>Stop playing all that bullshit, those weird notes, play the melody!<\/li>\n<li>Make the drummer sound good.<\/li>\n<li>Discrimination is important.<\/li>\n<li>You\u2019ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?<\/li>\n<li>All reet!<\/li>\n<li>Always know<\/li>\n<li>It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn\u2019t need the lights.<\/li>\n<li>Let\u2019s lift the band stand!!<\/li>\n<li>I want to avoid the hecklers.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t play the piano part, I am playing that. Don\u2019t listen to me, I am supposed to be accompanying you!<\/li>\n<li>The inside of the tune (the bridge) is the part that makes the outside sound good.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t play everything (or everytime); let some things go by. Some music just imagined.<\/li>\n<li>What you don\u2019t play can be more important than what you do play.<\/li>\n<li>A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.<\/li>\n<li>Stay in shape! Sometimes a musician waits for a gig &amp; when it comes, he\u2019s out of shape &amp; can\u2019t make it.<\/li>\n<li>When you are swinging, swing some more!<\/li>\n<li>(What should we wear tonight?) Sharp as possible!<\/li>\n<li>Always leave them wanting more.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t sound anybody for a gig, just be on the scene.<\/li>\n<li>Those pieces were written so as to have something to play &amp; to get cats interested enough to come to rehearsal!<\/li>\n<li>You\u2019ve got it! If you don\u2019t want to play, tell a joke or dance, but in any case, you got it! (to a drummer who didn\u2019t want to solo).<\/li>\n<li>Whatever you think can\u2019t be done, somebody will come along &amp; do it. A genius is the one most like himself.<\/li>\n<li>They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along &amp; spoil it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transcribed by soprano sax player Steve Lacy in a spiral-bound notebook,\u00a0Thelonious Monk\u00a0created a primer of do\u2019s and don\u2019ts for club musicians. Here\u2019s a transcript of the text: Just because you\u2019re not a drummer, doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t have to keep time. Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1984,"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions\/1984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doublebassguide.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}