My name is Mark Shane and I'm a violin addict. I was a professional saxophone player for 20 years,  from a musically oriented family and wanted to play the violin since I was a child.

Life has its ups and downs and after an injury ended my career, my marriage, and losing everything I owned and everything that was most precious to me, fighting with depression, and sinking further and further into an abyss of darkness that I couldn't escape, I found a fiddle in a friends attic. It sounded like bees buzzing when I drew the warped bow across it. I started watching YouTube videos on how to play and came across one of Pierre's. I reached out to him about buying a beginner violin. A friendship was started and a passion unleashed. 

What can music do for you? I don't know. For me, it got me through the roughest parts of my life. My body healed enough to get back to work,  even though it's a daily struggle, I don't mind, I'll play when the day is over.

I don't care to play for others anymore to often, just myself. I am my biggest critic anyway. I practice at least 2 to 4 hours a day, on some of the most beautiful violins you have ever seen, and I live life and I love life. 

If you see me out somewhere, and I do travel a lot, you can be sure there is a violin or 2 close by.

Have fun with your journey, take the advice you can use and store it away, throw what you cant use to the wayside. Relax and live in the moment,  and love who you are and what you do. You can be anything,  and achieve anything you choose, because you are the only one that change your mind, the only one that change your path, be true to you.