Beat Kitchen landmarks are something reserved for things that you go back to over and over again. And it would be unusual to include something like a melody. But today, on Thelonious Monk’s birthday, I’m reminded of this line.
The idea behind this melody is so incredibly useful. Once you hear it, you’re going to start hearing it everywhere. In the key of C, it’s like this.
And it can be harmonized. Intense. Here’s a close cousin as a bass line.
Backwards. An arpeggiator. That inconspicuous little line also demonstrates the utility of passing chords and diminished chords to get from one place to another.
There’s the diminished chord. And it’s also four notes, so you can use it to chorus-correct on a melody so that you always land on a strong beat on a chord tone. I wouldn’t have thought that a melodic phrase would be landmarkable, but this one is.
It certainly existed before Thelonious Monk, but thanks Thelonious for bringing it to all of our
