A-Chording to Cynthia | September 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!

We've made it to September. Are the seasons changing where you live?  

Welcome to our new Patrons and "Quarantine Newbies" aka "Qukes"!  Please read on below for newbie-specific info, and introduce yourself in the comments!  

Thanks to all of you, new or not, for directly supporting my work and for helping to create a powerful and positive online ukulele community.  I also want to give a huge shoutout to our Community Managers, facebook group moderators, and regional Squad leaders who give their time and energy to support our Patron family and the wider ukulele community.  Leadership is how a community grows, so if you'd like to lead, go for it.  If you're not sure how to start, watch other leaders and imitate, and ask for help.  Feel free to comment here or in our private facebook group.

Thank you for all the support for In Waves!

As previewed last month, my trio U3 (me, Ukulenny, and Abe Lagrimas, Jr.) released our debut album In Waves on August 28th!  Have you given it a listen?  

I'm still riding high on the cathartic "release" of a passion project that was 1.5 years in the making, and the sheer joy of being able to perform with my friends again during the Livestream Party (check it out if you missed it, our show at the "virtual Blue Note" made the Hawaii evening news!!).   I am so thankful for my Patrons, who are my biggest cheerleaders.  Your support gives me the confidence and the energy to keep pursuing my art, and I appreciate every stream, download, and word of encouragement!  Speaking of downloading, visit cynthialin.com to buy the digital album and pre-order CDs and vinyl. :)

September theme: the Harvest Moon

Watching the full moon rise last night, I started thinking of the Neil Young song "Harvest Moon," which I shared with Patrons last year.  I googled to find out that we're currently seeing the Corn Moon, and the next full moon is the Harvest Moon.  Which made me think that it would be fitting to play for the next livestream at the end of the month.  And then during tonight's 5@5 (my weekly Instagram live show), I flipped to a chart for Moondance just by chance!  The moon energy is too strong to resist.  Here are some other songs from the moon theme that I'm considering for our monthly livestream.  You can start reviewing to get in the lunar mood!

• Harvest Moon - Patron-only bonus lesson 
• Moon River - public tutorial 
• Moondance - Patron-only lesson 
• Fly Me to the Moon - public tutorial 
• Moonshadow - public tutorial 
• The Moon Song - 100 Days video 

And I will teach "Dancing in the Moonlight" for our Beginner Jam Lesson next week.  

Any other moon songs come to mind?  Comment below!  I'm thinking about what to teach for our Live Lesson and Intermediate Lesson, and would love to hear your thoughts.

I'll curate a songbook that we'll jam to together in our monthly CL x Ukulenny Community Livestream, which is now an official Patron-sponsored event.  Thank you for supporting our experiments with creating virtual community in a time of physical distancing!

New series: The Creator Chronicles

I'll be sharing more about this in a separate post, but here's a quick intro.  Patreon has invited me to become a Patreon Creator Ambassador and share some of the behind-the-scenes of my creator life.  I'll be creating a weekly video series to document the ups and downs of this unconventional career I've carved out for myself.  I hope that by sharing these stories, I can give insight to aspiring creators about this DIY artist's journey, and empower them to follow their passion, make the content they want to make, and use tools like Patreon to build a community around their passion.  I'll be posting on Instagram, you can follow at @cynthialinmusic if you like.

If you are an aspiring creator and have questions for me about my creator life, feel free to post them in the comments below, and I'll try to incorporate them into the video series.

Take good care, keep streaming In Waves, and I hope to see you online this month!

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 post 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 private facebook group is particularly active - email patronhelp@cynthialin.com with your Facebook email address to be added). 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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SEPTEMBER 2020 PATRON EVENTS CALENDAR

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

• Thurs 9/10 @ 5:30PM Pacific Time - Beginner Live Jam ($10+ Patrons)
• Thurs 9/17 @ 5:30PM Pacific Time - Patron Monthly Live Lesson ($5+ Patrons)
• Thurs 9/24 @ 5:30PM Pacific Time - Intermediate Live Jam ($20+ Patrons) 
• Sat 9/26 @ 3PM Pacific Time - Monthly CL x Ukulenny Community Livestream (public on YouTube)

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@5InstagramLiveShow. 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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*New* - Regional Squad events that are open to Patrons

For those who may not have a local uke club gathering, you can join these friendly folks!  If you have a local event that you'd like to invite Patrons to, post below or in our facebook group.

• Tues 9/8 @ 6-7PM Eastern Time - Zoom Play-Along Jam with NYC Squad leader Jenny (NewUkeNewYork) - open to all, more info via FB event or on her site. 
• Sat 9/19 6PM BST (UK) time - Zoom Open Mic with PNW Squad leader Connie - Connie is hosting an event at a time that's friendlier for our UK/EU Patrons. Contact Connie at pnw.cl.ukesquad@gmail.com
• Tues 9/22 6PM Pacific Time - Zoom Open Mic with PNW Squad leader Connie - Contact Connie at pnw.cl.ukesquad@gmail.com

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August 2020 Recap - Patron Events and new Videos:

• For our Beginner Live Jam ($10+ Patrons), I taught a lesson on the "Electric Slide" and the rock strum.
• We presented a special Patron-only U3 Album preview Livestream (All Patrons).
• The Patron Monthly Live Lesson ($5+ Patrons) song was "Rainbow Connection." That post is now available to all Patrons.
• For the August Intermediate Live Jam ($20+ Patrons), I chose to teach a fun arrangement of "Sweet Child O' Mine" from the U3 In Waves album
• Our CL x Ukulenny Livestream for the month was an In Waves-themed jam and album celebration (public on YouTube)
• I shared a video of a duet with Ben Ahn, in which we covered  "Dear Theodosia" from Hamilton. 
• I invited all Patrons to join in watching the premiere of an online Showcase Video featuring 70 of our 2020 100 Days of Ukulele Songs participants!
• U3 released a YouTube video of our cover of "You Don't Write" by the Ka'au Crater Boys.
• I posted a new animated music video for my original song "Aquamarine." 
• The new U3 album In Waves was released! New merch is also available!

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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 / the Pacific Northwest / 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