I recently passed 20 million views on YouTube, but a different number got my attention:
1.1 million hours watched.
That's roughly 125 years of people watching me teach banjo.
Here's another surprise: 63.9% of that watch time came from people who weren't subscribed to my channel.
I like that number, because it tells me most of that time didn't come from an established audience. It came from people searching for a tune, wondering whether they could learn to play, or simply stumbling across a banjo lesson.
And my most-watched video isn't a performance. It's Lesson 1 of my beginner banjo series, with more than 1.7 million views.
When I started playing in 1977, there was no way for one teacher to put a lesson in front of millions of people.
The instrument hasn't changed.
Neither has the way I teach.
What's changed is how far it can reach.
