Late night music and thoughts

Dear Friend,
Did you know that the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Disney's Pinocchio was Cliff Edwards aka Ukelele Ike? (It hurt me to spell Ukulele like that, just so you know.) I didn't find that out until a few days ago.  That video is of his song "Night Owl" played over a clip of His Girl Friday, one of my favorite movies.  I didn't realize that he was in His Girl Friday, either... I'm learning a lot lately.  (Like Cliff was friends with Buster Keaton, who also played uke, useful facts like that.)

I play ukulele now.  My skills are... not great, but every day I practice, and it's fun.  The instrument is so happy and sunny that playing it can't ever be anything but fun.  It's far easier than guitar (though I'm still trying with the guitar) and less strict than piano (or at least my way of learning piano).

My main problem with this lovely little instrument is my voice.  I'm not comfortable singing, even without an audience.  I've tried and tried to sing while playing, but my voice drops so low I can barely hear it.  That's quite a feat, singing so that you can't hear your own voice.  I don't think that I can't sing, I know that no one will be offering me a recording contract if they heard me, but stray cats won't howl at the sound of my voice, either.  I can carry a tune, I just need to convince myself that, since I'm just having fun with it, I don't need to be astounding to sing.  I can just be adequate.

So, enjoy some music folks, it's too fun not to.