Discussing Twitch and Livestreaming With Jonathan Ong
Jonathan Ong, streamer (JonathanOng on Twitch), pianist, and music teacher for 31+ years who, over time, has acquired perfect pitch. Specifically, Ong is a qualified Suzuki instructor, and with this talent he utilizes the Twitch platform, along with other platforms such as Youtube, Patreon, and Twitter, in order to share an irrefutable part of himself—music—to a widespread audience of 60.7K Twitch followers and more.
We spoke with Jonathan Ong to gain more insight into his journey of becoming a successful performer and streamer, as well as to find out more about Twitch as a platform.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Ong
Twenty2: Tell us a little bit more about your background in music and how that got you to where you are now, on Twitch and as a Suzuki instructor?
Jonathan: Suzuki is a traditional philosophy and teaching method, but it was originally conceived for the violin, and then it was expanded from violin to other things. I do not actually teach the violin specifically. It is its own method and topic of discussion in philosophy because it involves a variety of points to be discussed. That is what I teach about, and it ties into what I do on Twitch. On Twitch, basically what I do is online busking. For me, it involves playing things by ear. So, people request, ‘can you x, y, or zed.’ There are hundreds and thousands of songs out in the universe at this point. I don’t know all of them. I know very few of them. So, I will learn the requested song on the spot by listening to it. I don’t use anything, I just listen to it.
I really enjoy that Twitch is basically a room, and then you can do anything in the room—within reason.
Twenty2: How does Twitch and streaming fit into your life, then?
It turned out I quite enjoyed teaching, because it is like, ‘What do you like best about music?’ Well, I like sharing it. I was getting really depressed at one point because all I was doing was practicing in this little practice room, which is almost always built very grey. You are sitting in a grey box with no windows, and the most fun thing you have to play with is the reverb effect programmed in the walls where you can pretend you are in a concert hall. I do love sharing music, but I do not necessarily love practicing eight hours a day and going to national competitions hoping someone will pick me up. So, I was looking at ways to try and share music in a less stiff fashion. I finished my doctorate, and I went home to Australia and immediately picked up work in my old institution. At the same time, I was working in teaching all over the place—at home and in various school—during the day. Just trying to actually make a life out of it.
I then started Twitch, which was the first platform in Australia where people could participate in making music and share it. It’s not a traditional job. At one point, I had to make a choice between Twitch and lecturing, and as I was writing my cover letter to make my teaching position permanent—I just couldn’t finish it. Twitch is just so much more interesting and fulfilling in the sense that you can get people to chat to you overtime, that you are your own boss, every effort you do is your own, and that you’re not held by arbitrary administration changes, more or less. Every effort comes back to you, and in some ways I am working harder than I ever have, but I also feel happier than I ever have.
Twenty2: What do you recommend to those wanting to utilize Twitch?
Jonathan: You have to start Twitch as a hobby—just sharing what you love. You can’t go in there planning to make money. It does not really work that way. I don’t think I really made money the first year at all, and the following year I was earning less than minimum wage. The whole thing about streaming is that you have to love the thing you’re streaming to begin with. Music is an irrefutable part of me, and deep down if you took away my ability to make music, I don’t know what I’d do with myself,. Nothing else has been so life-long engaging for me as a person. So, there was never a question of me getting bored streaming the material I stream. In fact, I am coming out with different ways to present it even now.
The fact of the matter is streaming represents freedom—the freedom to express yourself and share things that matter to you, and to find other like-minded individuals globally that would enjoy the same material. It is a wild job. Anything can happen. I play for the biggest crowd of people in my life on that platform.
Twenty2: For anyone who does not know your Twitch streams, how does an average stream of yours play out?
Jonathan: For me, Twitch is a way to share music making. Specifically, my viewers will request a song I don’t know, and then I will learn it by ear on the spot. Then, I will improvise an arrangement using a wide array of synthesizers and virtual instruments that are orchestral in nature. I can construct a concert band, a wind orchestra, or a string orchestra. Some of my streams are more concert-like, but besides classical music, I also improvise original arrangements of anime music, video game music, and contemporary music.
Twenty2: Can you tell us something interesting about Twitch?
Jonathan: Even if you’ve been around the block of Twitch for a while, it really depends on who you’ve had the luck to see when you’re browsing through the categories. Some of the things people do don’t even have their own categories: I think there are woodworking streamers and nether working streamers. There are all kinds of crazy niches that don’t have their own category. Music got a massive boost last year because they finally decided to make it its own category—and people were like, ‘there is music?!’ There is actually a giant music button on the topic of the Twitch website now. I am grateful to Twitch for attempting to make our subcategory more visible, but you really have to dig around or check IRL sections to find some of these interesting streamers.
Twenty2: Is there anything you want to tell your viewers and the community you have created on Twitch, or any future coming viewers?
Jonathan: I just want to say thank you for watching, tuning in, and being amazing support for the past four years. I sometimes stay on stream as long as they will have me, and that is the verifiable truth. I just want to say thank you to anyone who has checked out music on Twitch, my channel specifically, for allowing me to keep going for as long as I have. I have been told the creative life cycle is about two years long on average for people to become interested in your channel, get tired, and bow out. Here we are, four years strong, and I have no intention of stopping. I have a giant amount of gratitude, and I have learned so much from the people who tuned in, as well. I call it the circle of creativity. Like, viewers have introduced me to so many genres of music. Their support has allowed me to do so many things that are so interesting in life, things that ordinarily would only come to people who are top-dogs in the entertainment industry.
This piece, and all accompanying articles, are meant to explore Twitch as a creative and versatile platform that could be utilized by many for sharing a variety of different careers/hobbies/talents. Twitch is a community, as all platforms are, with its own similarities and differences compared to other communities and their experiences and opportunities. This is a series by Leah Paris Freeman.