“Hey guys, sorry I haven’t posted up any videos lately, I’ve been busy with a lot of work, and so I’ll try to make it up for you guys today by showing how to play Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites on the piano,” says junior Joseph Chan as he leads into his 19:48 tutorial video that has garnered 68,356 views on YouTube.

Chan’s YouTube channel, Joseph Chanman, currently has 278 subscribers and 33 uploaded videos, comprised of long boarding and piano tutorials, as well as music covers.

Chan started his YouTube channel in seventh grade.

“I got inspired by David Caraccio’s Red Hot Chili Pepper bass covers. Initially, I just made long boarding tutorials, but they weren’t very popular or fun, so I started making music videos instead,” Chan said.

Chan started off by just making simple recordings of him playing bass or piano covers of songs, but found electronic music more intense and creative.

“It all started when I got a Focusrite Saffire 6 USB, which let me record and edit my music,” Chan said.

From there, Chan started getting more equipment, including Ableton Live 9, a professional music editing software.

Joseph said that most of his equipment came as birthday presents or gifts and has been accumulated over the years.

“These are my babies,” Chan said.

Regina del Rosario, Chan’s mom, is supportive of his passion.

“Joseph has always had a passion for music composition since he started banging tupperware and nails as a toddler,” del Rosario said. “He has a good ear for music.”

Del Rosario said that Chan first started playing the piano, and immediately transferred those skills into playing viola, bass, guitar, and ukulele.

“He enjoyed composing and improvising his own music,” del Rosario said. “This all lead to producing his own digital music.”

Del Rosario said that Chan enjoys the challenge of producing and receiving great satisfaction when it all comes together.

“He will stay affixed in front of the computer until his synthesis is complete,” del Rosario said. “He makes the videos as a way to share his talent with others and to explore possibilities in music.”

Chan said that the life of a YouTuber, someone who makes YouTube videos for a living, is stressful with all the work to do, and deadlines to reach.

“YouTubers get paid for all the dedication they put in to their videos,” Chan said. “I also get paid per a view, favorite, or minutes spent on my videos, and even though the money is insignificant, the feeling of getting paid for sharing your videos is incredibly rewarding and encouraging.”

Chan said that making videos is no easy task.

“Making a YouTube video is incredibly time consuming. People don’t understand how much effort and time it takes behind the scenes, especially if you’re a musician.” Chan said. “It takes at least four hours to record, and then another good four hours of solid music editing, plus even more hours to edit the film itself, not to mention the upload time.”

Chan said that sophomore year increased his workload and he stopped making videos because of his limited amount of time.

“I tried to upload once every two weeks, and then tried to do it once a month, but it just died down because I just did not have the time,” Chan said.

In the future, Chan wishes to start his channel back up again in college and is also strongly interested in working in the music industry.

“Right now, I’m doing small mixes here and there. Eventually, I want to revamp my current channel or spawn a new one off of it,” Chan said.