A-Chording to Cynthia | May 2020 Patron Newsletter (Patreon)

{Patron-only post: please click through and heart this post so I know you've seen it, thank you!} 

Aloha, Patrons!

Welcome to May 2020!  What a crazy, historic (hysteric?) April.  Sending love, and hoping you are safe, healthy, and inspired.  There's nothing like an upheaval of regular life to create new pathways for change and progress.  The world is more connected than ever, and I am so grateful for this joyful community.   A special welcome for all our new members. We're glad to have you. 🤗

Here's what's new this month, read on for details:

• Livestream with Ukulenny is back!  Tune in for our Totally 80s Jam 
• Guest workshops: Essential Bass Lines U-Bass Workshop with Ukulenny, Music Theory/Improvising Part 2 with Abe Lagrimas, Jr.
• Learn about leading jams online with our Patron-led Zoom Jam

As always, thanks to all of you for directly supporting my work and for helping to create a powerful and positive online ukulele community.

xo cynthia 🌺

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If you are a new Patron, welcome!  Please introduce yourself in the comments below.

Feel free to share how long you've been playing, what kind of uke you play, if you have an uke club to play with, what songs you've been working on, etc.  Please take a look at the WelcomeGuide/FAQ, and please be patient as you get familiar with the Patreon platform. If you have questions about Patreon, I encourage you to post your questions to one of our Community groups. Our community has tons of friendly folks who can help you faster than I can. Scroll to the Community Notes section at bottom of this post for ways to join and post to our Community. If you have a question that the FAQ doesn't answer, please comment there to help us continue to update the FAQ. Fellow Patrons, please help me answer any newbie questions. Thank you!

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MAY 2020 PATRON EVENTS CALENDAR

See all Patron events on our Patron Google calendar (also accessible through our Patron App). 

• Thurs 5/7 @ 5:30PM Pacific Time - Beginner Live Jam ($10+ Patrons) - I'll teach "Tainted Love" in preparation for the 80s Jam
• Thurs 5/14 @ 5:30PM Pacific Time - Patron Live Lesson ($5+ Patrons) - I'll probably teach something in preparation for the 80s Jam
• Sat 5/16 @ 3PM Pacific Time - SF Uke Jam Totally 80s Livestream with Ukulenny (YouTube Livestream)
• Tues 5/19 @ 5:30PM Pacific Time - BONUS U-Bass Workshop with Ukulenny ($20+ Patrons)
• Thurs 5/21 @ 5:30PM Pacific Time - NEW Patron-led Zoom Jam ($20+ Patrons) 
• Thurs 5/28 @ 5:30PM Pacific Time - Intermediate Live Jam ($20+ Patrons) - Guest Workshop Music Theory/Improvising Part 2 with Abe Lagrimas, Jr.

Details for all Patrons events will be posted separately.  To edit your pledge level, visit https://www.patreon.com/join/cynthialin and select your desired reward tier.

I also invite you to join me most Wednesdays at 5PM Pacific Time for my 5@5 Instagram LiveShow. Follow me @cynthialinmusic to get notified when I go live. 

Click here to Track my Livestream events and get updates and reminders. 

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April 2020 Recap - Patron Events and new Videos:

• For our April Patron Live Lesson ($5+), I taught "Bad Guy" and "Proud Mary." That lesson is now available to all Patrons. 
• We jammed together using my New Beginner Songbook during the April Beginner Live Jam ($10+ Patrons).
• I offered a Bonus Beginner Jam at a "European-Time-Zone-friendly" time ($10+ Patrons).
• For our April Intermediate Live Jam ($20+ Patrons), special guest Abe Lagrimas, Jr. joined us to teach a workshop on music theory and improvisation.
• Ukulenny and I joined forces to host a second Beatles livestream jam.
• 100 Days of Ukulele Songs kicked off on April 7. See more about this project here. I have been posting ukulele videos, as well as videos on my new voice channel.
• I was honored to participate in Craig and Sarah's first Online Uke Fest on 4/11. Did you tune in?
• We celebrated Ukulenny's birthday with a public Motown jam on 4/18 and I followed up by sharing my original Quarantine Birthday song for Lenny as a playalong video. 
• Reminder: we have shifted away from the monthly vote, and I will now be choosing our monthly Live Lesson.  Thanks for your support, and review the announcement here.

Stay well, everyone! I look forward to seeing you online this month.

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Guest workshops: Essential Bass Lines U-Bass Workshop with Ukulenny, Music Theory/Improvising Part 2 with Abe Lagrimas, Jr.

I love learning from my musician friends, and I'm happy to use this platform to support great ukulele artists and teachers while sharing more knowledge and music with Patrons.

Ukulenny will teach a U-Bass workshop on Essential Bass Lines that all aspiring bassists should know.  If you're interested in bass but don't have one yet, you can use a guitar (try to borrow one) and just play on the lowest strings.  Also, just FYI, you can use any bass - a U-Bass is the same as a regular bass.  I recommend you review Ukulenny's U-BASSics workshop that he taught for the Patrons last year (available for $5+).

Abe's Intro to Music Theory and Improvising workshop last month was really illuminating, and I'm excited to have him back to teach a follow up.  We'll work on learning to improvise higher up on the fretboard.

Learn about leading jams online with our Patron-led Zoom Jam

As a way to foster more online jam-leading, I wanted to host a Zoom Jam for Patrons so that we can all have more experience with using Zoom in a round-robin, musical jam context.  The jam will be available to Intermediate level ($20+) Patrons to keep the group smaller.  I'm asking our Community Managers to take turns leading songs in the jam, so that they can practice leading online, share their own Zoom / jam-leading tips, and lead us through songs that I haven't taught yet or that we don't often play.  I like to try new things, so consider this an experiment, and we'll have fun and help each other develop new skills.  I'm excited to see others lead!

COMMUNITY NOTES:

1. Join our private Facebook group (email patronhelp@cynthialin.com with your Facebook email address) - lots of activity, sharing videos and advice, and support and encouragement!  If you're not on Facebook, you can post on the Community tab here on Patreon. If you have questions about Patreon or ukulele or otherwise, posting the question to our very helpful and active Community will generate the fastest answer.  

2. More Facebook public groups - we're using Facebook as our community gathering place because it has the best community features.  Find all the CL groups here, including the CL Uke Newbies group and several active regional groups (NYC / LA / Portland / Hawaii and more).  https://www.facebook.com/pg/cynthialinmusic/groups

3. Learn to use the Cynthia Lin Song Index, created and maintained by the amazing CL Community Managers!   The super helpful CL Song Index organizes all CL songs, Patreon posts, YouTube videos, and tutorials.

4. Download the Cynthia Lin Patron App, created by our Patron Community Manager, Rich! Android app | iOS app 

5. Find all Patron events on our Patron Google Calendar

6. Find answers to many Frequently Asked Questions in our New Patron Guide/FAQ post.

7. To edit your pledge, visit https://www.patreon.com/join/cynthialin