Amateur Bard

Ohohoho, I am extremely smug.

So violin teachers will sometimes put a bit of tape or dot stickers on the fingerboard of a beginner’s violin so they learn where to place the fingers to make the correct note (violins don’t have frets like a guitar, it’s all knowing what the note should sound like and muscle memory of where that note should be, lol)

Of course, there’s wankers who opine that this is a horrible modern crutch! Back in the good old days, people just learned to play the notes solely by ear! Uphill both ways! In the snow! Without shoes! None of this ~making things slightly easier for beginners~ nonsense.

Well, look what I found in a book from the 1700s, The Compleat tutor for the violin:

A diagram that the user is supposed to lay out against their own instrument and… what’s that? “mark out these Lines with either Ink, or Bits of Paper pasted on the Neck of your Violin.”

That’s right: ye olde finger tapes.

I’m giggling.

(Also: pafted.)