First things first: I’m not a professional musician—I hesitate to even call myself an amateur musician. I’m just a music fan, a lover of all great music, with a special passion for jazz. I can play a some guitar and ukulele, and some rudimentary bass, but only for my own pleasure—you wouldn’t find much pleasure in hearing me perform, especially when I start singing. But when I’m alone, playing music is one of my great sources of pleasure.
And I confess to being obsessed with the music of Thelonious Monk. He wrote and played music that always brings me joy. His songs are inventive, quirky, and fun, and never fail to put me in good spirits. He was unique, truly one of a kind.
As musical instruments go, the ukulele is one of the easiest to play, especially once you know some basic chords and strums. Sometimes I pick up my uke and just let my fingers roam around the fretboard, trying to pick out melodies or chords for random songs. I was doing this one afternoon a few years ago, and I found myself picking out the melody to Blue Monk, perhaps his best-known song. Wanting to fill out the rest of the tune, I searched the Internet for some ukulele arrangements, and found only a couple of very basic tablature files (tabs). Now curious, I searched for uke arrangements of other Monk songs, and found virtually nothing. How disappointing: in an age when it seems that everything is available online, there was next-to-nothing in the way of Monk ukulele arrangements.
So I decided to do something about that.
I bought a Monk fake book for the piano. I learned how to read music. And I went to work. One by one, I’ve attempted to squeeze the essence of Monk’s compositions into the tiny footprint of the ukulele fretboard. No improvisation, no creative innovation. Just the essence of each song, essentially a fake book for ukulele.
What you'll find here are ukulele tablature layouts for Monk's compositions, all in downloadable PDF format. I've also created audio renditions of the arrangements as a way to help you learn the songs more easily. I occasionally toss in a little advice, but I hope the tabs are generally self-explanatory.
I'm doing this only because I enjoy it, and I wanted to share it with anyone that might be interested. I hope you pick up a ukulele and try to play a few of these songs. If you do, I suspect you’ll find yourself smiling before long.