Hello, all.

First of all, a huge thank you to Fiddlerman for this excellent website and youtube videos.  I'm finding that it's really a great resource, and the community here seems very receptive and friendly -- oftentimes hard to find on the internet.

I'm soon to be 30 years old, and am just beginning on my violin journey.  I've purchased a Mendini MV500 and have procured the services of a very accomplished young violinist to instruct me.  I live in a very culturally rich area in southwest Virginia which has a tremendous music heritage (mostly in bluegrass and country music).  I tend more towards the classical/contemporary side of violin, but I do enjoy celtic and bluegrass fiddling as well.  I hope to be versatile enough to play within any of these disciplines.

I've played guitar at a rather mediocre level off and on for 15+ years, played saxophone in concert band in my pre-teen years, as well as took piano lessons as a child.  My life has changed dramatically over the past few years, and the older and wiser I get, the more keenly I feel a longing to enrich my life with music.  I hope to appease that appetite with the violin (and perhaps some piano on the side).

My wife is a beautiful flutist, and her mother an exceptional pianist.  I find them a wonderful inspiration, and it is my lofty goal to achieve a level of skill on par with their own so that we might play together, as a family, simply for love of music.

So, that's a bit about me and my ambitions with the violin.  I hope to stay tuned in to this site and forums, and perhaps chime in from time to time with updates on my progress or to help others as I'm able.

Thank you, and happy fiddling!

- Spencer