Ray Chen Server History Doc

● When Was The Server Built?

20/03/2020 by server god Siobhan!

● Day When The Majority Of People Joined?

March 22nd, when Ray suddenly shared the
invite link without having any mods, and
Anni woke up at 4:30am to a ton of people
suddenly joining the server, without ever
having moderated a Discord server before.
Then at 5am he said good night and went to
sleep.

● Introduction of ShushBot (March 28, 2020)

Our server has multiple voice channels set up for members to practice their instruments
in, but there were several challenges with having regular voice channels act as practice
rooms that we had to overcome in the beginning. We needed a way to efficiently and
reliably moderate twelve practice rooms at once, so we decided to introduce a bot that
will make sure everyone gets to use our practice rooms without being disturbed by others
unmuting etc. Development was started by the JavaScript prodigy Info, and was soon
joined by Prady and Kevin. After the development period and extensive testing done by
our server dragon Winnie and the developer team, the bot was successfully introduced to
the server.

Many other cool features (like a practice time tracker, being able to set a user limit, ...)
were added over time, and it is safe to say that our server would definitely not be what it
is today without ShushBot!
● We Reach 10k Members, Then Ray Decides To Brutally Prune 400 Of Them
Despite the fact that we will always remember
this as one of Ray’s biggest boomer moments,
we were quickly able to hit 10k again, and we
still like to joke about this moment today.

● LoFi Improv Sessions (May - August 2020)

This was Ray’s attempt to improve his improv
skills in our server’s practice rooms, where he
claimed that “LoFi kinda feels like slowed down
jazz/hip-hop, this should be easy” before realizing
that he actually has more talent as a late-night club radio host than an improv musician.
However, as time passed, he improved quickly, and one lesson we were all able to take
away from his endeavours as a LoFi/improv artist was that persistency indeed is key!
Whether or not a LoFi album is going to be released in the future, we were always happy
to listen to his chill LoFi practice sessions in our practice room VCs.

● Sexy Beast: The Serverwide Trend

That Broke The Internet! (April 7, 2020)
When people get a little sad or
self-conscious, what would be the best
course of action to help them out? Calling
them a sexy beast of course! This trend
began due to a conversation that led to a
general consensus that people just need to
be complimented more to help them gain
confidence in themselves. The chain of
compliments began and became bigger than
anyone ever expected, and still continues to
this day! We hope for a future where the
server members continue with the
overwhelming positivity and support for
each other!
● The Great Naming… (May 24, 2020)
Ray discovers that one of the powers of being a server owner on Discord is the ability to
change people’s nicknames to his liking, which resulted in chaos as no one was even able
to recognize themself anymore.

● The Creation of Basement Gang (May, 2020)

Since the first mention of the basement, people have been wondering about this
mysterious place in Ray’s house.

It seemed like it was a place where people live, who

support Ray in his goal to spread classical music to a
wider audience.

Despite this noble goal, the living conditions in the basement remain questionable, and
are often cause for controversy in the server.

One day our community artists decided to support the editors in the basement:

And thus they were placed in the basement as well.

Since then many cursed and meme-worthy creations have emerged
from that place, but overall our basement gang does everything
they can to support the wholesome community we have, whenever
there’s a need for their incredible artistic skills.
● Hank Chang Overthrows Ray Chen (June 13, 2020)
A day after the public reveal of Hank Chang, Ray’s
captive in the basement, Hank Chang managed to
overthrow Ray Chen.

Members were all in support of Hank Chang as he took his

new spot in power. Hank was quick to abuse this power to
change members’ names, but very few protested even
then. What Hank may symbolize to us is freedom; we are
all well aware of the starving artists locked in Ray’s
basement lightheartedly called “Basement gang”. Perhaps
the fact Hank could escape gives “Basement Gang” hope.

● Father’s Day Video (June 21, 2020)

The Father’s Day video started from
an incredibly cursed photo that
escaped from the basement. We, as
server children, felt bad about our
chaotic ways and were trying to
brainstorm ways to make it up to him.
Anni, our wonderful server mom, saw
us actively planning to surprise Ray
with a wholesome gift and created a
secret server. Thanks to Arka’s
incredible arrangement skills and the commitment of all our amazing server members, we
were able to create a Father’s Day present.
On Father’s Day, we successfully surprised Ray with a YouTube video, which featured an
arrangement of Waltzing Matilda performed by some of his Discord server children (but
alas, we were unable to #makeraycry).
● Gaming Streams & Review Your Playing Streams
On a regular basis Ray reviewed people’s playing during livestreams on YouTube, and
provided helpful advice and tips on how to take pieces to the next level. For a chance to
be reviewed by Ray, people had to submit to either his r/raychenviolin subreddit, or the
dedicated channel in our server.
On top of all that productive and much appreciated music talk, Ray also sometimes
streamed himself playing all sorts of video games like Minecraft, Animal crossing, Super
Smash Bros, Skyrim and more. Whenever possible, people were allowed to join and get
their butts kicked play a multiplayer round with him!

● RaySMR (June 19, 2020)

Up until this date, Ray would sometimes use his practice sessions to attempt ASMR, e.g.
trying to achieve a crisp sound by drinking some water wayyy too close to his mic
(common technique used by ASMR artists in order to relax the listener). On this date,
however, Ray decided to release his own version of ASMR: Ray-SMR (which is 50%
ASMR, 50% motivation to practice)... Ray did not know how the world would react to this
and the server was completely unprepared.

Unlike traditional ASMR, which is supposed to relax the

listener and is only experienced by a subset of people,
the goal of Ray-SMR is to motivate many people to get
closer with their instruments. Ray’s goal was to keep the
listener relaxed by speaking in a soft voice, using some
ASMR sound effects, and also by being encouraging to
the audience (“Do you believe in me? Because I believe
in you.”). To this day it remains a mystery, whether he
was able to find an “instrument cleaning buddy”.
Reaction on the server was strong, but mixed (which might be due to musicians’ sensitive
hearing and experiencing music-induced chills, but there is no research to confirm to
date).

….however, as of March 18th, 2021, the total number of

practice hours on the server almost reached 20,000 hours
(19,881 hours). Was this due to server members using
Ray-SMR to motivate others?

Although Ray has said that he is not looking to produce another Ray-SMR video anytime
soon, some server members still remain hopeful:

One thing that can be agreed upon by all

server members though - whether you like it
or not, Ray-SMR has brought both long-time
and brand-new server members together
and is now firmly a part of our server
culture.

● “Offstage with [...]” Livestreams

This was a special series featuring guest artists over a variety of instruments. Similar to
the regular review videos (s. point above) Ray picked 3 videos to be reviewed in the
livestream that were previously submitted by people that were interested to participate.
Ray and the guest also answered a few questions concerning their careers, and discussed
the unique challenges everyone has been facing during the pandemic.
● Summer Livestream Solo Recital for the Chautauqua Festival (July 2, 2020)
Ray performed a free livestream concert featuring selections of J.S. Bach - ‘Sonatas &
Partitas for Solo Violin’ for both the Chautauqua Festival and for the Discord community.
Between pieces, Ray talked about life during
quarantine and his upcoming Bach album, Solace
(and might have been focusing a little bit too much
on Discord fam during the Q&A…):

We were incredibly proud and excited after the performance,

for not only were we treated to a free concert, but we all got
to enjoy it together as a Discord family.

● Play with Ray: Home Edition (July 2020)

The first ‘Play with Ray’ competition. which was announced back in 2019, was a great
success, with many contestants applying from all over the world. As we all know, 2020
was very different, being stuck at home due to the pandemic. This didn’t stop Ray from
announcing the ‘Play with Ray: Home edition’. The piece people had to perform to
participate was Liebesleid by Kreisler, but there was a twist; the violin part was open to
all instruments! When it was announced on Discord, people were discussing how they
were going to make their video the most creative and people were encouraging each
other to apply for the competition. There were many hilarious, but also great ideas for
submissions.

When the winners were announced, our Discord fam was supportive and showing only
love to the winners, with a few people from the server even being among the 20 of them!

● Holiday Jam Sessions (December 2020)

The holiday jam sessions were created to help bring some holiday cheer to the server
during the pandemic. People signed up, or just volunteered during the session to play or
sing some holiday pieces and songs that came from the heart. In that chill setting we all
just vibed together, and enjoyed the cozy Christmas mood.
From then on server jam sessions have become an important part of our server’s
celebratory culture, whenever we have something to celebrate together!

● Christmas Charity Project (December 2020)

As a server, we decided to prepare a Christmas charity project, for which people were
asked to fulfill one of the tasks below:
1. Create an artwork answering the question "How has music made this year
better for me?"
2. Record a video of your performance of a holiday piece/song.
For every submission Ray would donate $1 to a non-profit organization that expands
opportunities in music for children!

We received many amazing artistic

and musical submissions, which were
put together into the collage you can
see on the left.
Together we were also able to raise
$200, which were donated on
Christmas Eve of 2020.

● Discord Server Recitals (ongoing)

Our first Discord server recital was on June
6, 2020. There were 10 performers and over
200 people in a single VC. Ray also shared
this event on his Instagram stories, which
drew more people to the server. As of March
25, 2021, the server recitals are monthly
and still ongoing, with our server dragon
Winnie being the driving force behind them.
We want to encourage everyone, no matter
their skill level, to take this opportunity to
perform in front of the incredibly supportive
and loving audience that we have during our
recitals!