Unbeatable Energy is now a YouTube Partner!

For many years, I’ve used my YouTube channel to share African drumming, djembe tutorials, Boomwhacker ideas and highlights from some of the workshops and musical projects I’ve been involved with.

Over the past couple of years in particular, I’ve been developing the tuition side of the channel, creating more resources for people who want to learn African drumming, explore different rhythms and develop their playing.

And gradually, people have been watching.

The long road to 4,000 watch hours

To qualify for full YouTube Partner status, my channel needed to achieve 4,000 qualifying public watch hours within a 12-month period.

It certainly didn’t happen overnight.

At times I became far too interested in the analytics, checking the figures almost every day and watching the total creep upwards. There were periods when it seemed to stall completely, and more than once I genuinely wondered whether I was ever going to get there.

Eventually, around July, I decided to stop looking.

Instead, I concentrated on what was happening in the real world – delivering workshops, playing, developing my own musicianship and working on new ideas.

And something rather lovely happened while I wasn’t watching the analytics.

People kept watching the videos.

My existing back catalogue continued accumulating views and watch time. Then last week, almost on a whim, I opened the Earn section of YouTube Studio and discovered that I’d finally done it.

Even more remarkably, I later found that YouTube had sent me the congratulations email only around eight hours before I happened to look!

After spending so long watching those figures, I’d finally reached the milestone when I wasn’t watching at all.

Building something for the future

Becoming a YouTube Partner means that the channel can now generate some income through advertising and YouTube Premium when people watch my videos.

I’m under no illusions that this is suddenly going to provide my retirement fund! But what excites me is the possibility of the channel beginning to support its own development.

Over the years I’ve built up a substantial library of free African drumming tuition, rhythms, techniques, Boomwhacker activities and other percussion ideas. If that existing material can now generate some income, however modestly at first, that can be invested back into developing the channel and creating new projects.

And I have plenty of ideas about where I’d like to take it next.

One project I’m particularly excited about is developing my Boomwhacker work with a much stronger connection to the African musical traditions that have influenced so much of what I do. I’ve been experimenting with ways of bringing Boomwhackers together with African rhythms, drumming and other musical ideas, and there is a lot more I want to explore.

I’m also increasingly interested in using the channel to meet and talk to some of the master musicians who have devoted their lives to the djembe and West African music. Some conversations are already beginning to happen, and I hope to bring interviews and musical encounters with some extraordinary artists to the channel in the future.

Alongside that, the tuition will continue. I’m currently developing videos looking more closely at djembe technique, as well as continuing to share rhythms and ideas that people can take into their own playing.

Why not watch my latest djembe tuition video, ‘Think Up’, which looks at improving your tone and slap technique?

Watch and support the channel

You can explore all my latest djembe tuition, African drumming, Boomwhacker and percussion videos on the Unbeatable Energy YouTube channel:

 https://www.youtube.com/@unbeatableenergy

If you enjoy the videos and would like to help me develop more free tuition and new musical projects, you can also support the channel using Super Thanks on YouTube. Every contribution, however small, helps me invest more time and resources into developing what comes next.

Thank you for watching

Ultimately, none of this milestone happens without people choosing to watch.

So a huge thank you to everybody who has watched, subscribed, commented, shared a video or learned something from the channel over the years – and particularly to those who have supported the growing tuition side of the channel over the past couple of years.

Four thousand watch hours may look like a number on an analytics screen. In reality, they represent thousands of people spending their time watching, playing and learning alongside me.

That’s what makes becoming a YouTube Partner feel particularly special.

And now that I’ve finally reached this milestone, I’m really looking forward to seeing where I can take the channel next.