First Fret for ¾ Violin / 13” Viola

My daughter started out with red tape that her teacher taped up. Those are a bit wide and made a big difference in tone depending how she placed her finger. I bought first fret sticker here on amazon. What an improvement it made in the tone! In addition, the regular tape feels bumpy but this sticker is flat on the fingerboard, so it's only visual, fingers don't feel the lines. This helps to get used to not having any markings later. There is another type similar to this first fret, called don't fret. Don't fret is much longer and more useful for practicing other than 1st position. Don't fret also has white lines for half steps... so more lines. My daughter wanted to look "professional" and insisted on taking her first fret sticker off 3 days before her first recital. She played her piece with closed eyes so she wanted to look cool and thought she was ready for no lines. We took it off to find out that she wasn't mentally ready for it. She wanted to look at her fingers and plain black was messing her tone up. Right before recital was a bad time to change things. We rushed to a local music store and they didn't have first fret, only don't fret. We put that on but too many lines was confusing. It's easier to know that you must put your finger between two colored lines for natural C than have every single position with lines. Too many lines! We ended up blacking out the white lines with sharpie and also cutting off the sticker to 1st position. If your child is just starting, this is a wonderful simple sticker. I would highly recommend it. Just keep in mind that you have to make sure that distance is just right from nut to bridge. If it's different, adjust the bridge, otherwise the tone will be off: it's just physics and what sound you get is all relative to the length of the strings. Right after my daughter's recital, we have upgraded to 3/4 violin and bought 3/4 don't fret sticker: we did use sharpie to black out the white lines and left the longer sticker to help learn more than just 1st position. IMHO, don't fret just is overkill with lines, less helpful that way.

These little stickers are great for raw beginners. I am one, and they help a lot. Accurate, easy to see. My only gripe is that it’s very difficult to peel the decal off of the backing paper, and if you to h the adhesive, it sticks poorly st that spot to the fingerboard.But, they are designed to peel off of the fingerboard when not needed any more. That’s a good point, but it has its draw backs. Don’t touch the sticky bit. It’s easy to align with the fingerboard, too. I just used a knife to touch it with, instead of my fingers. All in all, it’s very useful. Lid buy them again.

I bought an electric violin after not playing for 20 years. I really needed a refresher so I snagged one of the First Frets to put on my 4/4 violin. It is so easy to put on and it helps immensely. Perfect for beginners or people like me who just forgot where my fingers go. I know after a while of muscle memory, I won't need it anymore so I'll eventually peel it back off, but for now - I'm so thankful this exists! I plan on buying another for my 2 year old grandson for when I start teaching him in the next year or two. Well worth the few bucks it costs.

I used these to learn my violin finger positioning, but outgrew them quickly. They are decently accurate if you’re just starting, but as most players know, once you get to a certain level you have to hear the notes and adjust accordingly rather than rely on these. Not necessary if you have access to private lessons, but they still do their job fine.

Violin or country fiddle. If applied the right way this item is very accurate. Always double check tuning with an electronic tuner.

Placed on the neck properly it works perfectly.

Soo much better than individual tapes. It has stayed on very well so far (2 months in).

I am a beginner and use 4/4 violin.This fits into my violin.But my tutor said the notes are little sharp so I adjusted the length a little bit by trimming off the edges as per the recommended length from the edge.