About BaritoneUkes.com

Not quite a traditional ukulele, not quite a guitar, the baritone ukulele is in a class by itself. BaritoneUkes.com is one of the few places on the web dedicated to these unique instruments and the musicians who play them.

About Cat

As you will discover if you read my blog, I’m insanely in love with baritone ukuleles. But it’s not sad. We have a healthy relationship. We spend most of our evenings together, and at least a few mornings a week, and of course, we hang out on the weekends. Still, we each have our own lives. Really.

My obsession began casually enough when I borrowed a family baritone uke for a road trip. Oh, how innocent were those times. The before times. Now I’m in love, and life has changed.

I dabbled in musical relationships over the years: an on-and-off but ultimately doomed affair with piano, a middle school crush on trumpet, a college dalliance with guitar. But it was forced. We just weren’t made for each other.

Then I met the baritone ukulele and it was love at first strum. Ouch, that metaphor is getting tiresome. But it’s true. And I’m still on the honeymoon.

I discovered what it meant to play rhythm. I learned to keep tempo while singing along, and to play with other musicians. I could jam! It felt like flying. I was hooked.

So far my obsession with bari ukes is mainly in playing them and understanding them, and understanding music. But I’ve heard there is a contagious condition out there in the ukulele community called UAS, ukulele acquisition syndrome. I hope I don’t come down with it! (We only have six ukuleles at this writing!) Meanwhile, I’ll indulge my playing-and-understanding quest. That’s the journey I’ll be writing about here. But be forewarned: playing is contagious too.

I’m not an expert… but I’m getting the hang of it! Think of me as the neighbor next door tinkering around in the garage and sharing my tools.

Welcome to BaritoneUkes.com. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Cat Masciola

cat at BaritoneUkes dot ya know

connect with me on Reddit

About the Illustrations

I’m often asked about the illustrations on my site. I created them from scratch using Adobe Illustrator. It’s the only way I can have full control over the unique visual designs I use to portray musical concepts that can be difficult to visualize. For example, the artwork in my article Baritone Ukulele Chord Shapes: The CAGED System Illustrated, is the umpteeth version of diagrams I created for myself when I was learning to play baritone ukulele. I spent years pondering and playing and illustrating, trying to put all the pieces together in my mind.

I’m a visual learner, I guess. I feel like I can learn anything if I can draw the perfect digram of it! The may not be true for quantum mechanics, but I think it does work quite well for the “physics” of music – the study of the underlying structure of music.

There a few notable exceptions where the artwork is built right into the site itself, using Divi theme and the Divi Table Maker plugin. The Baritone Uke Fretboard: A Step-by-Step Guide is an example. One of the quests I’m still working on is to burn into my brain wiring the mental map of the fretboard, the way the piano keyboard was etched in my neural net long ago when I was a young child.

About the Site Building and Hosting

Building a website is a heckuva lot easier nowadays than in years past. But it still takes some patience, and some study. Once you’re past some of the the initial learning curve, though, it’s fun to be able to create and share through a WordPress site. I’ve taken all kinds of courses from Income School, where I’ve been a member since around 2018, learning how to create and maintain a site and to connect with poeple. Things change fast and often in the “blogosphere,” but I know that Ricky and his team are going to cover everything I need to know with enthusiasm, dedication, and determination, and humor. Their member forum has save my behind a number of times when I needed to talk to other members directly for advise.

About the Cost

I rely on my own sweat equity for all of the day to day tasks, and of course there is financial investment too. I do all the writing and illustrating on BaritioneUkes.com. I’m the bookkeeper and the tax pro. I’m the web developer, the public realtions staff, and so on. I’m very fortunate to have a dear one who is a gifted and accomplished professional muscian and from whom I’ve learned a great deal about music. He helps out by answering questions and proofreading at times if I need a second pair of eyes on technical matters.

Financial costs certainly pile up. The Adobe suite is over $600 annually. As for hosting, I used a budget host for the first six years but it became a nightmare to deal with. I’m so happy with BigScoots, but it ain’t cheap at a little over $1k per year for a managed plan. They also have shared hosting plans starting at under $100 per year for smaller sites. Income School is $500 per year, although I think mine is around 20% less because I’ve had it so long. Other annual technology costs include backup systems, security monitoring, and miscellaneous software like tax, accounting, and office apps.

On the music side, there’s more technology and gear. Maybe I’ll do a separate article about that in the future Meanwhile, my next task is adding a tip. I’ll be taking another course at Income School to learn about that.