Monk's Advice (from a 1960 notebook)

• Just because you're not a drummer, doesn't mean you don't have to keep time.
• Pat your foot + sing the melody in your head when you play. Stop playing all that bullshit/ those weird notes, play the melody!
• Make the drummer sound good.
• Discrimination is important
• You've got to dig it, to dig it, you dig?
• All reet!
• Always know … (Monk →)
• It must always be night, otherwise they woudln't need the lights.
• Let's LIFT THE BANDSTAND!
• (I want to) avoid the hecklers
• Don't play the piano part, I'm playing that, don't listen to me, I'm supposed to be accompanying YOU!
• The inside of the tune (the bridge) is the part that makes the outside sound good.
• Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music just imagined.
• What you don't play can be more important than what you do.
• Always leave them wanting more.
• A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.
• Stay in shape! Sometimes a musician waits for a gig, and when it comes, he's out of shape and can't make it
• When you're swinging, swing some more!
• What should we wear tonight? SHARP AS POSSIBLE!
• Don't sound anybody for a gig, just be on the scene.
• Those pieces were written so as to have something to play, and to get cats interested enough to come to rehearsal!
• You've got it! If you don't want to play, tell a joke or dance, but in any case, you got it! (to a drummer who didn't want to solo)
• Whatever you think can't be done, somebody will come along and do it.
• A genius is the one most like himself.
• They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along and spoil it.