Hi All,

I hope you’re keeping safe and well!

The recent server issues are fixed, it was an easy fix in the end but took many days to find the cause! The website is seeing a massive influx of visitors at the moment so I’m glad this is resolved, fingers crossed, and a warm welcome to everyone who is new here.

There are several ways to sign up to the site, to encourage new members, but the main signup form is changed so that they can indicate which keyboards and interests they have. Existing members can take advantage of this feature by editing your profile. As you select new interests, such as which keyboard you own, you’ll automatically be enrolled in the correct Groups and Forums. In due course, this feature will expand to show you other information of interest to you, such as forum posts or downloads that relate directly to instruments that you own.

Roger is a stalwart as ever and has been posting some great new files on the legacy forum so grab those! I’m still working hard to be able to migrate all the legacy forum posts into this new site and it is proving to be a huge task. I’m also planning to gather all of the great uploads Roger has made over the years onto one page as soon as I can.

As I’m now working from home in my day job due to the pandemic there’s less travelling, which saves me six to eight hours per day, so I hope to go beyond keeping up the daily website maintenance as soon as the work backlog is caught up, as well as posting some Newsletters for you.

I’ll also catch up with messages soon. I’m reading them all and actioning any website items as quickly as possible, thanks for being patient and also helping each other out in the forums, activity stream and comments.

My son Alex and I have virtually isolated ourselves for eight days now and I’ll pick him up later today so that we’re together. He and I are very used to spending long periods of time alone, either engaged in our work, academic studies or our music hobby. Hopefully, there will be time to play some music together as well, we’re looking forward to that.

I ventured out last night to pick up essentials and to drop some food outside the door at my parents’ place, for them and the dogs, and it did feel somewhat eerie to be outdoors. There aren’t many cars on the streets and people are keeping a good distance from each other. Smiling and waving has taken the place of close conversations or shaking hands. Given this situation, the Internet has, even more, become the lifeblood of the global community being essential to people’s work and social lives. I’m conscious that this distancing is new for many people, please do use this community to reach out to music-lovers everywhere and keep in touch on an emotional level to support those who are not used to being on their own. Keep the conversations going if you have time, show people their opinions matter and they are cared-for 🙂

Post in the forums and make some new friends, it helps everyone to keep our spirits up in these troubled times, download some new files and have fun playing your instruments!

Best wishes, and see you soon!
Mike

Wishing you all a Happy 2020!

The fabulous Jim Harris on Technics FA1

A stunning arrangement from one of my favourite players.

Happy holidays everyone! Lots happening on the site in the next few days and the coming year!