The 20th meeting of the Community Music Hangout took place on Sunday July 9, 2023 at the West Piano i.e. Carly. The marine layer and wind were back in full force on Sunday and it was chilly! The piano was in better condition than the previous week but was nevertheless quite difficult for most of us to play. Not for all of us, however. Rikki and I had a late start leaving the apartment and, by the time we arrived, we had a whole gang of folks hanging out! We had Kyle, and nick. And Susie and Dave with their little ones Orion and Robin. And Susie brought her violin! Fantastic. And so, despite being late, we were off to a strong early start to the day. As the morning turned to afternoon, Brian cycled up to add his voice to the mix. At this point, everyone around the piano had all been to a CMH previously. We had a nice gang of regulars! It feels so good to bring this group of like-minded people together. Come on out to the Hangout and become a regular! Later on, we would meet a few future-hangout-regulars in Koi and Shiji. They both hung around for a while, played some songs, sang some songs, and really contributed to the positive vibes. Great to meet you guys and I hope you come back soon! The sticky keys on the piano made for difficult playing. Many times, you’d reach for a note and nothing would sound. The internals would get stuck halfway and the key would neither reset nor sound. All the folks who played the piano on Sunday struggled with this except for one fella: Cormac. Cormac was also the youngest player of the day by a good 10-15 years. Cormac played a few original compositions that blew us all away. The pieces were beautiful and the playing was immaculate. For the rest of the day, the rest of us mere mortal players wondered how Cormac made it sound so good! Come back soon, kid. Finally, fulfilling the tradition of something really cool happening just when we think we’re packing up, we met Lindsay. Lindsay was two hours into a run (!) so she had to let the feeling come back into her hands a bit before she could play. And when she did? Fantastic stuff! It was nice to play a bit of horn with her and hear her sing some jazzy tunes. Lindsay should also come back to the hangout soon! All in all, although the conditions outside as well as inside the piano weren’t great, we had another fabulous time out at the piano. We saw familiar faces, we made new acquaintances who we hope to see again. Can’t ask for more than that! We’ll see you again on Saturday 7/15 at the West Piano starting at 11am!