Patron Events for January 2018 (Patreon)

Aloha Patrons!  Happy new year!

First, welcome to all the new Patrons - so glad to have you kick off your new year with ukulele, and with our ukulele community!

Thank you for a great 2017!

2017 was a big year for our Patron community!  some highlights:

• we started 2017 with around 400 Patrons and grew to 1300+ Patrons!  
• we now have an active facebook group and Patron forum, big thanks to our Patron Community Managers Richard, Leah, Christina, and Jenny!
• we had a number of Patron meetups throughout the year, notably NYC, LA Uke Fest, SF Uketoberfest, and Honolulu.  

Your support and input have helped me to improve my tutorials and lesson presentation, and your pre-orders and encouragement made it possible for Ukulele Days and Cozy Christmas to place on the Billboard charts.  I can't thank you enough - now more than ever, I feel I have the ability to create with freedom and use my abilities to inspire others.  Thank you for believing in me.

2018 Goals and Events

This year, I have 2 main goals:

1) to work on new recordings and focus on developing myself as an artist, and 

2) to tour and teach more in person, because I see how my physical presence can help activate real-life communities.

What this means:

- I intend to keep all our monthly Patron events because I enjoy spending dedicated time with you all online, and I do feel our Live events are a special gathering place.

- There will be more Patron meetups!  Already for this year, I am planning on travel to LA, Seattle, Melbourne AUS, Michigan, Kauai, and NYC, just to start!  I LOVE meeting Patrons in real life and having you all meet each other, and I love seeing the connections turn into local uke squads and uke communities.  

- Dates will move around from month to month.  With my travel schedule, I will likely have to shuffle dates each month.  I apologize in advance for the inconsistency, and I ask for your patience and understanding.  I will do my best to give you lots of advanced notice of monthly events.

- I will share livestreams of my in-person events with Patrons whenever possible.  Depends on logistics and bandwidth and such, but I want to include Patrons in the in-person experience, as much as possible.

MONTHLY EVENT CALENDAR 

• Thurs. 1/4 @ 4:30PM December Live Lesson (Fly Me to the Moon) - rescheduled from December
• Fri. 1/5 @ 12PM PST Drawing for winner of December Patron Giveaway on Youtube Live
• Thurs. 1/11 @ 4:30PM PST Beginner Live Jam
• Thurs. 1/11 Vote for Monthly Tutorial
• Thurs. 1/18 @ 4:30PM PST Live Lesson for January's winning song
• Sun. 1/21 Bonus! Beginner Bootcamp livestream
• Sat. 1/27 Cynthia in Los Angeles - Uke Stars Showcase
• Tues. 1/30 @ 6:30PM PST Intermediate Live Jam - Livestream of Beatles Workshop

and then looking ahead a bit

• 2/3 - Seattle Concert & Workshop Tickets are selling fast, get em quick!
• May 11-13 Mighty Uke Day Fest in Michigan & East Coast Tour (TBA)

Most live-streamed Patron events happen on Thursdays at 4:30pm Pacific Time. There's also a calendar on our forum and event reminders in our facebook group - thanks to our Community Managers for keeping those updated!

NEW TO PATREON?

Here's a little more detail about the different levels and events. (PS as noted above, these dates will get shuffled a bit, but this is the general plan!)

• Week 1 - Vote!

All Patrons are invited to vote for our monthly tutorial / Live Lesson. 

• Week 2 - Chord Chart! Early access (for $3+ Patrons)

I'll post the Chord Chart for the vote-winning song by Thursday, in time for our Live Lesson. click here to find all previous Chord Chart posts.  

• Week 2 - Live Lesson is usually on the second Thursday of the month, 4:30pm Pacific Time  (for $5+ Patrons)

Every month I teach the vote-winning song in a Live Lesson as prep for creating the tutorial.  I post a private video link, and you can log in and chat during the Live Lesson.  You can always watch the Live Lesson recording later, so even if you can't join live, you can still participate! Click here to find all previous Live Lesson posts.

• Week 3 - Beginner Live Jam is usually third Thursday of the month, 4:30pm Pacific Time (for $10+ Patrons)

For those who are new to the Live Jam, jamming is about casually playing songs together.  I encourage all levels to jam - you learn a lot by playing through at the pace of the group, and it's low pressure because we can't hear you. :) You don't need to study or know the songs before the jam. We'll jam on beginner-friendly songs from my Beginner Songbook.  I'll help guide us through the songs and provide some review for the strums and some tips on chord transitions and technique, but the main purpose of the jam is to get comfortable reading charts faster and to have fun playing through songs. click here to find all previous Beginner Live Jam posts.

• Week 4 - Intermediate Live Jam  is usually the fourth Thursday of the month, 4:30pm Pacific Time (for $20+ Patrons)

Players at this level have typically worked through most of my tutorials on their own and are looking for more challenging material.  The Intermediate Live Jam Patrons help choose topics/songs/techniques for an Intermediate lesson, and we jam using our Intermediate Songbook. click here to find all previous Intermediate Jam posts.

Thanks as always for supporting what I do, and thanks for helping me share the joy of ukulele with people across the world.  I believe we can change the world, one uke at a time. :)

xo cynthia.

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COMMUNITY NOTES:

1. Join our Facebook group and Patron forum - lots of activity, sharing videos and advice, and support and encouragement!  If you have questions about Patreon or ukulele or otherwise, asking them in either place will generate the fastest answer.

2. Click for the super helpful CL Song Index of all songs, patreon posts, and tutorials (thanks to our Community Managers for building and maintaining this!)

3. Check out our 1K Patron Concert!