Announcements & News!

RuthPower

Here is where I will update you with any important Piano Picnic announcements or news updates! Good to have a central place to do this that you can subscribe to and know you're up-to-date with important stuff!
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Ruth

RuthPower

First announcement is that I am taking next week off! A holiday!!! In the middle of the year!!! Things must be going well, eh? So this shouldn't mean much for you guys, aside from if you have any questions or need to tag me in anything, or email me - it's possible I won't reply till after the 25th July. I hope this doesn't cause any inconvenience ~ I'm anticipating a flood of inspiration after I have a much needed break, so no doubt you will see the benefits come through Piano Picnic shortly after!
Keep playing like you mean it! 🧡

RuthPower

Due to a few spammers making their way onto the forum, I have added a few extra security measures. New signups will be passed through a known spam database and blocked if they're a known spammer. The only difference to everyone as users, is that you will have to check a box when you post to confirm you are not a spam-bot! Apologies for the inconvenience but this is a measure taken to protect your information.
REMINDER: Please do not upload any person information to your profile or this forum, including phone number, address, id numbers or bank details.
LET'S KEEP THIS FORUM SAFE: If you see any suspicious activity on the forum, please send me a message to let me know - thank you to @alexx88 who alerted me on this occasion!
Thank you everyone!

Ruth

RuthPower

Hey All - welcome to Piano Picnic in 2022! Lots of fun stuff to happen including 'The Keys to Songwriting' course coming out on 25th Jan. AND soon to be launched - a refer-a-friend reward system so you can get a buddy involved in Piano Picnic and earn discounts!
Before that however, I'd like to request any volunteers who want to participate in a forthcoming livestream in a few weeks. I want to interview a few of you and get your thoughts on what it's like learning piano at your age... the theme of the broadcast is to show what piano learning looks like at different ages: in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond!
Anyone who would be up for sharing their experience please let me know! It would be in the form of a private zoom call and then I would put together clips as a pre-recording for the live (so you don't have to worry about speaking live on fb).
If you want to participate but not by video, you can simply let me know and I'll share voice clips of our interview instead - or even text quotes. Also - I won't need to share your specific age, that we can keep secret. 😉
I think it would be really interesting for other people who are considering learning piano to see someone their age sharing what it's like - the doubts, the hurdles, how you overcame them, and of course the rewards!

Tagging a few people to see if you would be interested: @alexx88 @MikeClarke @vkisamore @noellah-jeannica @Bev @celiajoy @Cindy

MikeClarke

Hi Ruth, and a Good New Year to you and everyone.
Happy to help, (as long as you don't want me to play to show my progress!! I've been lax over the holidays, however slowly getting back into a practice routine for the year ahead).
Happy to share my age, i'm 68 (will be 69 in July).
Just let me know.
All the best, Mike

RuthPower

MikeClarke Awesome thanks Mike! I'll be in touch with details soon!

Who else is keen?

RuthPower

Hey everyone - not sure who will see this, but in case you wondered if I'd disappeared off the face of the earth - I kinda did, got the ol' Covid didn't I?! Seems to be a milder version than what others have had, but it's knocked me out for the count this week! Have been in bed watching lots of Netflix - I hope that I'll be back swinging enough to do a livestream next week but we shall see. Must restore the energy!
Keep playing it like you mean it and I'll be back with you in better health soon! AND HAPPY EASTER!! 🐇

Gerry1

So sorry to hear you've had Covid, Ruth. Do hope you will be 100% fit again soon - make sure you don't overdo things!!!
By the way, is there anyway I can get my name back in the forum or does login have to be an e-mail address?
Hope to see you again soon,
Gerry

RuthPower

Gerry1 Hi Gerry - I've changed your username for you - you can also change this at any time, but can't be the same as an existing one - so I've used Gerry1 - feel free to change if you want to.
Thanks for the well wishes! Feeling much better this week.

RuthPower

Has anyone guessed or want to guess what the next course is in July? What do you hope it will be??? :🤔

Gerry1

I thought you'd already mentioned it would be another Ear Training Course.

MikeClarke

Mmmmm? It will certainly be something you're passionate about, it will be fun, full of awesome content and it will be what we need on our 'Creative Piano' journey, Mmmmm? but the title doesn't show up in my little crystal ball 😃

Seriously though Ruth, whatever it's going to be, it will be amazing and I look forward to it.

PS. When you get around to bottling that 'passion/energy/amaziness' put my name down for a bottle, Piano Picnic is the BEST! 😃👍🙂

RuthPower

Lovely! Good memory @Gerry1 you are on the right track! Thanks @MikeClarke I love your enthusiasm too!

RuthPower

THIS WEEK: No livestream this week but we have

the replay from last week's member's coaching up in The Vault area.
We also have a poll going on Facebook with your votes for what to name the next course!
And everyone's homework this month/week which is to listen to piano music and visualise in your mind how the hands would look playing that song (even if you don't know exactly which keys to play)...

What song have you chosen to listen to and visualise the piano keys?

skipandrews

Jackson Browne's "The Loadout/Stay"

skipandrews

Or maybe I will say instead Professor Longhair's "Tipitina's" or both.

RuthPower

Great choices. How did you go with the visualising @skipandrews ?

RuthPower

Hey all! Long time no chat! -This is a short notice to say that I've had to step up some of the anti-spam measures because random bots are trying to start discussions in the forum that have nothing to do with us... so please let me know if you find posting is too obstructive, but I'm trying it as a way to protect from spam. Please reply to this post and let me know how you go.

MikeClarke

Hi Ruth, Feel it for you running an online business, these spammers/scammers are getting worse according to the News. When I logged in there was a Pop-Up sign "Nelson-chat.forum.pusher_not_found". assume that is the extra measure? I'll post this clicking on the "I'm not a robot: and happy to go thru whatever security checks you need to see the site safe. All the best, Mike

RuthPower

MikeClarke thanks Mike! I didn't know that they had been getting worse all over, that's interesting. Yes they've been trying to post about products & such, but I've set it so that no one can start a new conversation without my approval now, which means a little delay with getting conversations started, but worth it for the security I think.