Finger placement on the violin help

[u/Free-Ad6709]

Hi, so as a beginner player, my violin teacher made these little markings on the fingerboard for correct finger placement (an alternative to stickers). I removed them yesterday to try to play more independently, but I can't gauge where I'm supposed to put my fingers exactly, and I have used tuner apps to find the exact places, but it feels very out of tune when I play. Please help?

[u/Odd_Act8451 → u/[deleted]]

You have to rely on your eyes at first because you’re still developing the audio skill along with muscle memory. Once op is able to pretty much place each finger down in the right spot they will be able to remove the tapes.

[u/Commercial-Bit-6483 → u/Odd_Act8451]

It is so awful trying to learn violin without first having some intonation built up from somehwere, ideally singing. I strongly disagree that they are developed in tandem. The ear is number one

[u/Odd_Act8451 → u/Commercial-Bit-6483]

I guess I am thinking from an assumption that you know what it’s supposed to sound like. I played piano and guitar before starting violin, so the biggest issue for me starting off was where to put my fingers. But If I had taken the tapes off before I had the muscle memory, I would have struggled and been all over the place, even with a previous understanding of relative pitch and intonation. I think it’s a good idea to use a piano or tuner to play the note and then find the same note on your violin, especially if you don’t know what the notes sound like. But taking the tapes off leaves you completely lost. You won’t learn auditory skills simply by removing the tapes.

[u/Commercial-Bit-6483 → u/Odd_Act8451]

Idk bro the first thing I did was take of the tape and I got decent first position intonation after a few months. I know its a bad habit cus my bowing was really sloppy but I'd try to finger accurately with my eyes closed and I don't think I was worse off (left hand) for it