PURPOSE:
There are situations where I do not like to take my tripod for camera or camcorder use due to the location being crowded with people. A monopod works great for situations like this except I often desire not having to handhold it for so long, such as a 10 minute video shoot. During the latest shoot at my boys' violin recital, my hands started to shake after awhile, affecting the video quality. I ALSO didn't want to spend over $100-200 on another monopod (except with three legs) that are available on the market.
MATERIAL:
1) My Manfrotto 3245 "Auto" Monopod (with rubber foot off)
2) An old portable and fordable music stand that my boys used to use until broken (DIY folks never throw things away! 
)
3) A black duck tape
4) A strip of insulation foam
5) Some soft round foams that came with the purchase of CD or DVD spindles
PROCESS:
1) Take the top tube out of the music stand
2) Tighten the adjusting knob very hard and then cut it off, as the knob that sticks out won't allow the monopod tube to slide in
3) After painting the white spindle foams, slide them to the bottom for the cushioning the monopod end, like this:
4) Cut off some insulation foam and using the black duck tape, "fill" the outer part of the thin music stand tube in two or three sections so that when the monopod gets inserted (by taking the monopod's rubber end off), it fits quite snuggly without lose movements
Music stand taped with insulation foam and ready for the monopod use...
THE FINAL PRODUCT:
With the monopod snuggly inserted over the music stand with no lose movement. Note that the legs can be spread wider or, as in this photo, shorter...
When it's folded up, it gets the "Gitzo" royal treatment along side that of my Gitzo monopod.
Note the same length of the folded up stand for easy storing and portability
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THIS DIY:
Obviously this DIY is ideally suitable for relatively light load atop a monopod as shown above with my Canon HG10 HDD camcorder. However, it can hold a lot more load as long as the user is willing to stand close by guarding it. For instance, it can handle my 40D with the grip and the 24-70L without any issues. While it CAN doesn't mean I'm going to take the risk, however.
I made this DIY for mainly indoor shooting, so it's more suitable for such as opposed to shooting in outdoors where wind might cause havoc on even the light set up.
Luckily I didn't throw away the broken music stand thanks to my DIY instinct. If anyone wants to duplicate this with the existing monopod (has to be able to access the inner tube of your monopod to work, such as Manfrottos or similar brands and make) instead of paying $100-200 for another, specialized monopod, you can purchase a new music stand at your local music store for only around $10 which is what I had paid for the one used above.
