January 2025 Community Check-In & Calendar

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

Aloha, Patrons!!

Happy New Year -- It's January 2025! A warm welcome to all the new Patrons! If you're a new Patron, please introduce yourself in the comments, and check out the New Patrons section below. Take some time to look around, check out the WelcomeGuide/FAQ, and post any additional questions below.

January 2025 Announcements

💁🏻‍♀️ Cynthia @ NAMM: I will be at the NAMM conference in Anaheim on Saturday, January 25th. Find me at the Ohana Ukuleles booth in the afternoon, performance time TBA. Anybody planning to come?

🎤 Making space for new projects: I'm taking a pause on weekly 5@5 livestreams and the weekly Voice Workshop series. It wasn't an easy decision, but I found it necessary to make the space first, and then allow inspiration to fill that space. I'll share more about new projects soon! You can still join the Voice tier ($30+) to access the full Voice Workshop Archive. And stay tuned for my new Vocal Power Bootcamp launching next week! It will be available for all on YouTube.

📌📣 Community Bulletin Board via comments: Feel free to use the comments section in this monthly check-in as a Bulletin Board for all things uke or Patreon.  Events, announcements, invitations, questions, requests, suggestions -- all are fair game.  We can also use the Chats in the Patreon App, and I'm open to using them for discussion in any way that benefits Patrons.

Thanks for reading, for being here, for supporting my journey and for sharing yours.

xo cynthia 🌺

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JANUARY 2025 PATRON EVENTS CALENDAR

See all Patron events on our Patron Google calendar (set on Pacific Time, click the bottom right corner to add to Google calendar in your own time zone). Please double-check all times. Hawaii Time does not participate in Daylight Saving clock changes. Lesson dates shift to accommodate my travel/gigs.

• Thursday 1/9  @ 2:30PM Hawaii Time / 4:30PM Pacific Time - Mindful Beginner Jam ($10+ Patrons)

• Thurs 1/16 @ 2:30PM Hawaii Time / 4:30PM Pacific Time - Patron Monthly All-Levels Live Lesson ($5+ Patrons). Pre-lesson Zoom Social at 2PM HT / 4PM PT

• Thursday 1/23 @ 2:30PM Hawaii Time / 4:30PM Pacific Time -  Intermediate Level-Up Jam  ($20+ Patrons)

Details for all Patron events will be posted separately.  To edit your pledge level, visit https://www.patreon.com/join/cynthialin and select your desired reward tier.  (Patreon will only charge you for the difference in the upgrade).

Looking for more chances to jam? Our Patron Community Manager and NYC Squad leader Jenny hosts 4 free monthly play-alongs on Zoom and YouTube at both USA- and UK/Europe-friendly times. Find this month's dates and more information here.

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December 2024 RECAP and Community Reminders

• I live-streamed my Holiday Aloha Strum-Along mid-month and held my annual Gratitude Giveaway! 

• In our Mindful Beginner Songbook Jam  ($10+ Patrons), we played songs from our Beginner Holiday Songbook.

• For our "Year in Review" Live Lesson ($5+ Patrons, now available to all levels), we revisited the Live Lesson songs for 2024. Download the year-of-lessons songbooks via this post!

• For the Intermediate Level-Up Jam ($20+ Patrons) we jammed from our latest Intermediate songbook.

• Voice students ($30+ Patrons) met three times this past month, ending our voice lesson series for now.

• Ukulele All-Stars played a Christmas concert @ Blue Note Hawaii!  Thanks to all the Patrons who attended in person and watched the livestream!

• 🎉 Patron 10-year Anniversary Party in Honolulu: Saturday March 15, 2025

  Please see September's newsletter post for what we've got planned so far. You can also share information about housing and transportation in the 10th Anniversary Hawaii Celebration Chat thread I created here on Patreon. I saw that folks created a spreadsheet, so you can add yourself!

  Be sure you also fill out the Hawaii 2025 Interest Form if you haven't already. If you would like to take the lead and help arrange group activities, please let me know.

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Special note for new Patrons

If you're new, I invite you to take some time to get to know the platform - there's a lot here, and it may take a while to navigate the many lessons and posts.  The community WelcomeGuide/FAQ post is a good place to start.

To find a specific song or lesson, learn to use the Cynthia Lin Song Index spreadsheet.  Thank you to the Community Managers for creating and maintaining this helpful resource.

Please introduce yourself in the comments: I'd love to hear how long you've been playing, what kind of uke you play, if you have a group to play with, what songs you've been working on, or anything else you'd like to share.

If you have questions about Patreon, I encourage you to post your questions in the comments below or to one of our Community groups. Our community has tons of friendly folks who love sharing their uke experience. Join our Patron-only Facebook group (be sure to answer BOTH membership questions).

Seasoned Patrons, I always appreciate it when you help me answer any newbie questions in the comments of this or any post.  Thank you! Feel free to post your questions in the comments as well.

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COMMUNITY NOTES:

1. Join our private Facebook group: In the Facebook group, Patrons can share videos, advice, support, and encouragement! Be sure to answer both membership questions so that Community Managers can verify your Patron status. If you wish to connect and are not on Facebook, you can share a post on the Community chats in the Patreon app. 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. Facebook public groups - we're using Facebook as our community gathering place because it has the best community features. Find all the CL groups using the link below, including the CL Uke Newbies group, an all-levels group, and several active regional groups (NYC / LA / the Pacific Northwest / Hawaii and more).  https://www.facebook.com/cynthialinmusic/groups

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

4. Please note: as of November 2024, The Cynthia Lin App (which Is not the same as the Patreon app), created by Patron Community Manager Rich, has been discontinued and may no longer be supported on your devices. Thank you so much for your work, Rich!

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