Blue Monk
Thelonious Monk · 1954
A slow blues that is one of the most accessible tunes for learning medium swing comping.
- Artist
- Thelonious Monk
- Year
- 1954
- Genre
- jazz
- Drummer
- Percy Heath
- Tempo
- 110 bpm
- Time
- 4/4
- Feel
- swing
- Difficulty
- beginner
Drummer's Quick-Start
Practice tempos
Woodshed
66bpm
Building
88bpm
Target
110bpm
The feel
A swing in 4/4 around 110 BPM. A comfortable mid-tempo — lock the backbeat first, then shape the dynamics.
What to watch
- •Lock the shuffle triplet; the #1 mistake is letting it straighten out as you speed up.
How to learn it
Well-known tutorials exist for this one — use the links below, and play along from your own copy.
Generated from this song's groove profile — analysis only, no notation. A human-reviewed AI brief with a full groove breakdown, key moments and song map replaces this as briefs roll out.
Learn it
Find drum tutorials on YouTube ↗iDrum links to where lessons already live — we don't host recordings or publish transcriptions. Play along from your own music.
Discussion
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