Oh, you’ll do just fine.
I jumped on the monome wagon back in '06 when the 40h was released and then moved up from there to a 256 then 128…i eventually sold them, but i primarily used it to play my tracks out and have a way to jam bit/pieces of my tracks easily. if you can follow instructions, you can easily play with a monome especially now that it works so well with Live.
i used to have to rewire shit to max/msp and that wasn’t always the best…with max4live, i don’t see near as many issues popping up…
i actually just bit the bullet and crossgraded to max4live for $100, and i am now on the prowl for a varibright monome (256 preferably). super stoked to play with all the goodies that have been made since i last had one!