I'd appreciate any tips on how to approach a tune such as Monk's Well You Needn't. For those unfamiliar with the tune, the head is played over alternating measures ot the I chord and the #I chord. I've seen it in the fake books as either F6 to F#6 or F7 to F#7.

My question is; in this tune (and in other situations where there area repeating, alternating measures of the I chord and the #1 chord), would one "walk" alternating between the I and #I scales, or is there a "hybrid" scale (say, incorporating a minor second and a sharp fifth) that would be used? I guess the same question would apply to soloing (on any instrument) over these changes.

Thanks in advance for your ideas on this, as well as for all the great info I have gleaned from this site.

You can bounce back and forth between the two, or ignore the second chord, or treat the second chord as a tritone sub for the V chord, get really chromatic, etc.

One recording of Monk doing this composition has him starting the bridge from Db7.

As far as I know, Monk always played the bridge starting in Db. It was Miles who started the G bridge thing... and it seems to have become the convention because of the lovely Real Book.

As far as I know, Monk always played the bridge starting in Db. It was Miles who started the G bridge thing... and it seems to have become the convention because of the lovely Real Book.

Although i'm certainly not a fan of the Real Book, we can't blame this one on it. I was playing the G bridge long before the Real Book came along.

Thanks for the perspective. Just curious if there's any prefrences out there since I have always learned towards the Db bridge.

Although the two, (G7, Db7) are pretty much the same chord; because it's Monk's tune, I guess he prefered the Db in the bass, so I'd have to go along with the composer. Of course this would depend on the group's context.

KeyserSoze:

Although I am reading this topic with considerable interest, I apologize for commenting off-topic and saying

I L-O-V-E your user name!
:hyper:

How cool is that!

Although the two, (G7, Db7) are pretty much the same chord; because it's Monk's tune, I guess he prefered the Db in the bass, so I'd have to go along with the composer. Of course this would depend on the group's context.Actually, it's a Db6 chord. And the band better be in agreement on which bridge is going to be played, because 1)the melody is a half step lower in the Db version, and 2)the entire sequence is not the same.

Of course this would depend on the group's context.
You got it, T Bal. A good friend of mine whom I've played quite a few gigs with, Steve Cardenas, came out with the transcribed versions of Monk's tunes. Great book. You probably have it.