Uke Around The World

Even the composers or creators of meaningful and beautiful art struggle throughout their life! Let’s take a look at someone who has written over 1,500 songs in his lifetime. Among these songs, one was in a musical. The audience requested 24 encores from the cast at the end of the show! I’ve only been to a show with at most 3 encores. You read this and think he must have been some sort of master of music…

This person started out as a lyricist, writing words to other people’s melodies. He had NO formal musical training and played by ear.

Do you know what this means? He spent a lot of time exploring sounds on the piano and listening to other people’s melodies. **Think about that the next time you *cringe* when someone is exploring an instrument – you could be discouraging someone on their path to joyful sounds!

This man was Irving Berlin. I like to think that encouraging people surrounded him. They allowed space for him to create his own melodies.

Then, over time, he managed to write these songs:

White Christmas

Puttin’ on the Ritz

Without formal training, most people starting to play piano like to play on the black keys. Try it some time – you can make beautiful sounds and melodies by playing any of the black keys in random orders. I think Berlin started this way because look at the key of this version of “Blue Skies” I found!

Try this version on your ukulele today. I promise it’s a little more piano friendly, too!

Encourage the people around you to make joyful noises and explore a bit. You never know if that’s the little bit of blue skies they needed that day.