Wait…what? A discussion about my underpants? I’m not sure why you would think such a thing. I’m not sure why, at the age of 7, the very word underpants would send me into fits of giggles. Jan! Where are my underpants? Young Sam, hand clapped over mouth, vibrating with mirth. Maybe it was my father’s Scottish brogue and the way the ‘r’ purred off his tongue like a cat in a cask of whiskey. Underrrpants… Like that was the dirtiest word in the whole world. Well…okay…let’s not even go there. 

The point is that for the past I-don’t-even-know-how-long Youtube has been promoting Shorts. Everyone seems to be uploading Shorts. Until very recently I didn’t know what a Short was. I’ve never paid them the slightest attention. Never watched one. Never uploaded one. Didn’t understand the fuss. Not interested. But since they keep popping up I thought it high time I got better acquainted with Shorts. 

Wikipedia has a very good entry on YT Shorts if, like I was, you’re a purely long format person. What gripped was that as I don’t do Tik Tok or Instagram, and these days everyone (well, there’s nothing like a gross generalisation!) goes to bed with their smart phone social meds, I thought the short form vertical video might not be such a bad thing after all. A little music must be better for the soul than doom scrolling. Right? Plus, people always tell me how my music puts them to sleep. Hmm…? Not sure that is really something to share but… Turns out that Shorts, being portrait, are the perfect format for smart phones and sleepless nights. Hello darkness my old friend…

Here are some really boring, brutally honest, and slightly embarrassing stats relating to my YT channel. I started my SamMuir Ukulele channel in 2013. In 13 years I’ve uploaded 486 public videos (not bad). I currently have nearly 8,000 subscribers (not great but I’m pleased with that figure). Total views = 1.2 million. It’s a big number but it’s not impressive. For example, just one of Jake Shimabukuro’s videos has 1.8 million. I’ll pause to swallow a humility pill. 

I’m no Jake but what I do, I do pretty well. Nevertheless, classical ukulele is kinda niche. My most watched video, JS Bach Prelude BWV1007, has 77,000 views. I’m sure Mr Bach is fairly howling. The truth is that up until early July 2026 I hardly ever looked at YT analytics and never really bothered about stats or views. Algorithm? What? I was also really bad at responding to comments. Sorry! But a couple of recent comments did catch my eye. Oh, I only just found your channel and this is exactly what I’ve been looking for. So, it’s only taken you 13 years…? I started thinking about it. 

I know there are other factors at play but how could I have been on YT for 13 years and people who are interested in classical ukulele are only just finding my channel? (I mean, how many classical ukulele players are there?) Maybe they only joined YT yesterday? Hm. Let’s face it. My views are low, I have relatively few subscribers and my reach is….well…underpants… Classical ukulele might be niche but that should be my strength. It felt like my channel needed a boost. Or maybe a few Shorts…

Why do my Youtube views matter?

I’ve passed the summer in the quiet confines of my home in Somerset beavering away on new arrangements and new compositions. This is my happy place. As already stated I’ve uploaded 486 videos (four more since I started writing this blog). I’m looking forward to uploading 500 and intend to keep going. To the moon and beyond…

This is what I do. I create my own content. Record my own videos. Edit them and upload to YT. I use my YT channel to direct people to my Patreon page where for a small subscription they can access my arrangements, compositions and tutorials. I also sell my digital content on Payhip, and through Sheet Music Plus and Sheet Music Direct (both subsidiaries of Hal Leonard). Several of my books have been published by Productions d’Oz and one by Schott. My YT channel is the way I promote my content. People see and hear a piece and if they want to play it they can access the sheet music from one of the above. Despite the not-so-impressive stats it’s a system that works for me. You don’t need a million views per video to be a successful digital creator. But don’t expect an invite to my Caribbean island. I don’t have one. 

My publications page ~ click here.

The idea of Shorts and growing my YT channel led me to watch a few videos of Dan the Creator. Dan’s videos are designed to help small YT creators like me grow their channels. One thing Dan recommends is creating YT Shorts using something like Nexus Clips. Initially I tried this with a couple of long format videos (fortunately I keep all my videos on a hard drive) and shared my first pair of Shorts early in July. Tbh, they didn’t look very good. Slightly fuzzy, text running over the edge of the video, both hands not visible. Nevertheless, in 48 hours I’d clocked up 600+ views. Which for me is unprecedented. I was also, slightly bizarrely, accused of selling my soul to AI and told I should go back to making my own videos. Yeah! I still don’t get that! 

My first short ~ click here.

Lucky for me one of my followers saw my post and the comments. He told me I should definitely ignore weird comments and definitely do more Shorts. Even better, he  was happy to help. What followed was literally the best advice I’ve had in years. 

For years I’ve been using Final Cut Pro to edit my videos. I capture the video on my iPhone 16. The audio is captured using stereo AKG C214 mics which plug into my MacBook Pro via an Audient ID44 audio interface. On my MacBook I use Logic Pro as my DAW. The audio and video are recorded at the same time so they should match perfectly. I’ve found that since a recent update, however, there is a discrepancy. At the start of the video the audio syncs perfectly but by the end it doesn’t. That has been incredibly frustrating. When my friend recommended using DaVinci Resolve 21 for the editing process I was more than happy to try something different. With the help of a video tutorial I found Da Vinci Resolve very intuitive to use. I quickly learnt how to transform a long format landscape video into a Short. Boom! 

As mentioned earlier I keep my videos on a hard drive. I often wondered why I did this but now I appreciate the importance of backing up and keeping all my content. I can drop those old videos into Da Vinci Resolve and easily create Shorts. What followed was a flurry of uploads and my views dramatically increased. 

I’ll admit that initially I was hood-winked by the honey pot of increasing views and, when one of my Shorts hit 2,000 views, even started looking at the possibility of monetising my channel. Of course, Short views are counted differently to long format video views. But, as all my videos were getting a boost, things were looking up. 

I was on a roll. I was dizzy. I watched more of Dan’s videos. Started thinking about playlists, tags, timestamps and linking content. This is all really good advice and I am still working on getting my content more organised. But with nearly 500 videos it’s going to take a while. Meanwhile, I was madly uploading 30+ second Shorts of my older videos. I greedily watched as the views went up and up. Then came the turning point.

I had just gone to bed and, as had become a habit, checked in to see how my stats were going. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. This is why I use the term social meds. On August 7th my Short of Cat Stevens’ Lady D’Arbanville arranged for baritone ukulele had shot up from 1,000 views to nearly 3,000 views. The line on the graph went straight up and down meaning 2,000 views in no time at all. Wow! I’m going viral…. (Irony intended!)

Needless to say I hardly slept. I kept waking up and checking my stats. Yes, it was real. Eventually I went to sleep and dreamed of sunlit beaches, white sand and swaying palm trees. By the next morning the views had flatlined. A coconut dropped on my head and like Icarus I plummeted back to earth. Seems it was just the algorithm testing my Short on a new audience. The ride was over. Plop!

But in those dizzy 4 weeks I’d learnt a great deal both about YT and about myself. I’m still organising my YT content into playlists. Carulli. Baritone. Cat Stevens. Classical Ukulele etc. I’ve got better at tagging my videos. I’m including end screens. I’m including timestamps. I flat refuse to use to a goofy, cheesy, AI generated thumbnail. I know everyone bangs on about the importance of an eye catching thumbnail but I honestly don’t give a pair of underpants. Clicks be damned! I much prefer to see the person in the video. That said, I have worked out how to export a frame from the relevant video to create a thumbnail that includes the title and me not looking too fuzzy or goofy. Well….hopefully…

After that brief flirtation with the algorithm I no longer give a pair of underpants for analytics but I’m pleased to be more aware of these things. It’s important to be informed and I’m glad I have more understanding of how YT works, or maybe doesn’t. YT seems to be changing faster than a pair of underpants so I’ll keep watching Dan’s videos to try and keep abreast of things. I’ll decide what advice works for me and what doesn’t irrespective of views, algorithms or dollar signs. The main thing is to keep my followers happy by uploading content that they want.

This heady journey has been good fun and, most importantly, has resulted in some positive changes. I’m using a better editing programme (Da Vinci Resolve which is free). My editing skills have developed. I’m still discovering new features and learning new ways of improving my editing skills so at the moment it remains a work in progress. But, for example: I recently uploaded two video tutorials for my Patrons using Da Vinci Resolve. I was able to zoom in on my hands when demonstrating and zoom out when talking. Not exactly rocket science but a major improvement on previous tutorial videos. Plus, I no longer have any issues syncing my audio and video. Boom!

Another thing I’d like to mention is the video app I’m now using on my iPhone called Black Major Camera. This is free to download and works really well with Da Vinci Resolve. I guess that makes sense since it’s produced by the same company ~ Black Magic Design.  

The YT playlist “Sam’s Ukulele Shorts” is, in fact, a nice little portfolio of my work. I’m also ridiculously pleased with that name (sad…very sad…but true!). Anyone interested in my work can now get a 30+ second taster of my videos and the type of content I’m creating. Everything in one Playlist. That feels like the biggest win. 

Perusing my Shorts also gave me a chance to reflect on my content. Everything sits under the slightly awkward banner of classical ukulele but there is a great deal of variety. Bach, Carulli, Giuliani, Roche, traditional tunes, original pieces, pieces for Renaissance guitar, Hawaiian music, instrumental arrangements of songs by Bob Dylan, Hozier, Cat Stevens, Dolly Parton and George Ezra. Pieces for high G campanella style. Pieces for baritone. Pieces for low G tuning. Soprano. Tenor. Machete da braga. The list is extensive. I feel good about my work.

The last 4 weeks have been a rollercoaster ~ highlighting the fine balance between being true to my creative self and the inevitable reality of earning a living as an independent musician whose living is largely reliant on creating digital content. I imagine that like most professional ukulele players my income is anything but stable (a bit like my YT views!). There are ups and downs. I am constantly looking for ways to keep doing what I love doing and this means trying to keep up with trends and technologies. 

I’m not a fan of AI. How long can I ignore it? Or pretend to ignore to it? Just by being on any social media platform means an inevitable amount of engagement with AI either directly and indirectly. AI scares me. AI bamboozles me. But a part of me is also intrigued. The need to keep up with the world presses. As I get older technology feels more imposing, overwhelming and confusing. When I first started playing the guitar at the age of 9 nobody had heard of a Smart phone. Nobody had a personal computer. I’m feeling old. My brain often spins and my body often complains but I’m glad I grew up in a world where technology wasn’t listening to my every word or watching my every move. But here we are in 2026. Thus spoke Zarathustra.

For any digital creator the minute you post or upload a video you’re exposing your soft underbelly. I feel blessed that most of the comments I receive on my videos are positive, pleasant and encouraging. Being a digital creator is not easy but having a small, enthusiastic following makes it all worthwhile. So, THANK YOU!

You may be thinking well, come on, how did YT Shorts impact your Patreon page? The honest answer is, I don’t know. I didn’t measure the stats. Plus, recently I’ve uploaded a couple of crowd pleasers including ‘Spanish Romance’ and ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Dolly Parton. These videos have attracted more views and a few more followers. So, are my ‘home improvements’ appealing to the algorithm, or is it simply down to content? Maybe it’s both.

As I scroll through my playlist of YT Shorts I have a wonderful sense of achievement. After that brief, buzzing cloud of 2,000+ views I have arrived back on earth with my feet firmly grounded. I love what I do. I’m proud of what I do. These are my Ithacas. 

Coda

Shortly after turning 61 in May I received a letter from His Majesty’s Government telling me that my retirement age is now 67. By the time I get to 67 the retirement age will probably be 77. Well…underpants…I have no intention of retiring! 

Next goal ~ 1,000 videos. Or maybe just another cup of coffee… 

Sam’s Ukulele Shorts ~ full Playlist