Hey! My name is Augusto, but you may reffer to me as AugustoAD, or simply Toad. I am 16 years old, and I live in Brazil. I've been learning to play the violin by my own; I began back in June 2012. My inspiration to start playing were videos from Violin Tay and Lindsey Stirling (mainly) on youtube. After I saw those girls playing, I suddenly became fascinated by the instrument, and started watching only violin-related videos and listening to quartets and duets. 

I realized I wanted to play it so bad, so I asked my parents for one as my birthday gift. I got a REALLY cheap one, as they told me: "First you learn how to play, then you will get to have an actual good instrument". It costed us US$75 (R$150). I was amazed! At first I was a bit confused about how did the instrument worked, but as I watched more videos and lessons, I began to figure it out.

I'm still an amateur, but I simply love music. My next goal is to learn how to read sheets. I've been playing by ear (I have inherited my grampa's musical ear, so it's pretty easy to me) so far, and I can play around 20 songs.

I've been looking in this website since I got my violin, and it has really helped me to learn everything. I decided to join the forums because I wanted to chat with more people that enjoy playing this amazing instrument (along other ones like the guitar, the cello, the viola and eticetera). I hope to make new friendships here.

PS: I'm sorry about my english, it's kinda rusty I'd say, as my native language is portuguese and I have noone to practice my english with.