I respect John (The Ukulele Teacher) because he is reaching many players age 30 and below in a way that the “traditional” ukulele club movement is not. Younger players are not attracted to the social aspect of the instrument—they want to play their songs and to learn them in the privacy of their own home. John’s choice of repertoire is generally spot-on; and while he doesn’t always “teach,” he does occasionally do so, such as teaching about left hand muting in a new video covering 21 Pilot’s new “Jumpsuit.” He has over 1,000,000 subscribers on YouTube, a very respectable phone app, and endorsement from Kala. His singing isn’t great, but I think that many people consider themselves to sound as John does, and it gives people that normally wouldn’t sing the confidence to sing, too (as a voice teacher, this is important to me).
So, what I’d say is this: if you don’t like him, don’t watch the videos, but be aware there is an army of people who like what he does.
Army? Yes.
Ukulele Underground has a YouTube subscription base of 270,000. Cynthia Lin has about 210,000. Jake Shimabukuro has a following of 58,000 (even after his viral Central Park and TED Talk videos) and James Hill has about 62,000 subscribers. Mike Lynch has about 78,000. My own little channel, which I cannot monetize, has about 12,500 after a year, and the founder of the style of videos that I create has a following of about 21,000 subscribers.
It isn’t easy to develop a subscriber base of 100,000+, and it’s even harder to reach 1,000,000.
All that said, The Ukulele Teacher has room to grow. Grace VanderWaal has 2.7 million subscribers, and 21 Pilots has nearly 7 million subscribers.
It might not be about the numbers, but the numbers do matter when you talk about cultural trends and influence.
Finally, my respect for John’s work grew 1000% at last year’s Los Angeles Ukulele Festival. It is a great time, and Mitch does a great job of communicating. That said, the artists sent digital materials to Mitch, who then distributed them online. Participants were asked to make copies of those materials to bring to the event. I use an iPad, so it isn’t a problem—but most participants failed to bring anything. I saw many sessions where the instructors had to rework their entire presentation on the spot because the audience didn’t have access to the handouts. That included Victoria Vox, Lil’ Rev, Kalei Gamieo, and The Ukulele Teacher.
John took the opportunity to still try to teach the material, but then called kids (5-15) up on the stage to help him work through the songs. As a music teacher and as a teacher in general, I loved how he was able to drop everything and change things up to make it a worthwhile experience, and those kids will never forget that experience. The line to meet John after the presentation for pictures was LONG.
Someday, some of these young players will seek out community and find themselves in ukulele groups. Until that time, I’m glad that they have these resources to keep growing in the areas they find of interest, just as most people here at UU have their own areas of interest.
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The photo is of John teaching at the 2018 LA Ukulele Festival