I play the Scottish fiddle (which looks suspiciously similar to my violin). To avoid confusion, this does NOT mean that I know a thing about Bluegrass, Appalachian, Irish, etc. music. Just Scottish stuff. Sort of like how jazz guitarists don't know a thing about rock, even though they play the guitar.

I also compete: right now I'm in the "Junior" category, which is everyone under 18 (I used to be in Novice, which is...well...novices). There's three types of competitions in the US--normal, regional, and national. Normal's normal.Nationals is national (isn't this easy?), and regional just means that if you win you qualify for nationals.

Finally, the organization that holds it all together is Scottish Fiddling Revival--Scottish FIRE.