Share a video to enter our December Patron Giveaway! (Patreon)

Aloha Patrons!

I'm very excited to announce our first Patron Giveaway!  Join me today Tuesday 12/5 at 12pm Pacific for a Facebook Livestream where I'll walk through the details of the Giveaway, answer any questions you might have, and chat in general about what's coming up this month.  Feel free to post any questions you might have in the comments below.  Please request to join our Facebook group now if you're not already a member so you have time to get approved (this helps keep spammers out) - the Live video will pop up there at noon.  See you then!

Patron Community Video and Giveaway

I feel like I keep saying this, but it bears repeating - THANK YOU ALL for making this community as beautiful as it is.  It's been my pleasure to experience the growth of our community, both in numbers and in spirit, over the course of this year.  Thank you.

As a way to celebrate our Patron community, and inspired by the many videos you all have shared of yourselves on our forum and facebook group, I thought it would be awesome to commemorate our year with a community compilation video - let's make a video that features all of you!

Share a "Stand By Me" video to enter

Essentially, I'll ask all of you to submit video for the same song, which I can then cut together into one epic Patron video - I haven't done this before, so it's a bit of an experiment, but I'm excited to see what happens!

Everyone who participates in sharing a video for the compilation will have a chance to win - the grand prize is a Tyde Music Learner Uke (shown above).
She is a beauty - that's some incentive to enter, right? :)  Special thanks to the awesome team at Tyde Music who handcraft all their ukes, including this one.  There will be some additional prizes, to be announced.

Winners are chosen at random

Important note - this is not a contest on your playing ability.  You only need to submit a video to enter the giveaway, and rest assured that you will not be judged on your playing.  Music is meant to be shared, and my goal is to encourage you to share your music, whatever your playing level!

How to enter

1. Record "Stand By Me": record a video of you (can be alone or with others, such as your uke squad, other Patrons, friends/family, pets, or anyone you like) performing “Stand By Me.” Please follow my video for tempo and key: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qqDiaZ-pqyA  

Keep in mind that anyone in the video with you has to be ok with possibly being in the compilation video.  Optional - include an introduction of you, your crew, and where you're from!  Bonus for including any local landmarks (Eiffel Tower, St Louis Arch, Sydney Operahouse!).  All active Patrons in the video will be entered in the Giveaway.

2. Post in our facebook group: post your video as a comment on the pinned post in the Cynthia Lin Patrons Facebook Group by December 31. This post will stay pinned to the top, so please be sure post there, so I can see your video!  Please caption your video with the full names of the Patrons in the video, including your own name, and where you're from - I intend to highlight our global community in the compilation video. :)

3. If you’re not on facebook, upload the video to your own Youtube, make it unlisted, and post the link and names of Patrons represented in the comments below so that it can be shared on the facebook thread by one of our community managers.  

4. Winners will be selected at random and announced in early January.  

5. I will pick my favorite videos for the compilation, and ask the owner of the video to share the original video file with me separately.  My goal in creating the compilation video is to highlight the reach of our community, from major cities to small towns, circling the globe, and to share the power of ukulele in spreading the aloha spirit.  

If you have an uke squad, I think this is a great opportunity to try to organize yourselves for a group video.  Also, holiday time can be a good time for gathering people in song - see if you can get your friends and family to join you for a sing-along while you play.  I can't wait to see your videos!

Tips on recording

- No need for special recording equipment! Cell phones and laptops record audio and video pretty well as long as you’re not in a very noisy area.  You could try a USB mic like http://amzn.to/2AlSQy3 or http://amzn.to/2kbDAzu but remember that technology can complicate things too - just stay relatively close to your recording device, and you should be ok

- Natural lighting (daylight through a window) usually works best, but work with what you got.  

Disclaimer

By submitting a video, you give Cynthia Lin (me) the rights to modify and publicly share a portion of your video in the Community Compilation Video only (ie I will not use it for other purposes).  By submitting a video, you acknowledge that all participants have agreed to participate in this Giveaway and Community Compilation Video (ie make sure whoever is in the video actually wants to be in the video and doesn't decide later to not let you submit it).

Thank you!  I'm excited and I hope you are too!

xo cynthia.