Tapes are one of those hotly debated points, where you aren't likely to get a clear answer one way or the other.  Some respected teachers swear by them while others claim they are the root of all that is evil.  I don't really know, myself.

I can say that I definitely see where some teachers who teach classes of maybe more than a dozen students in schools consider them an absolute necessity.  Even just going around and spending as little as a minute or two checking and correcting each student's intonation would use up almost all of the class time.  While some folks might feel that is a fine way to use class time, it would make progress in the class so slow as to be discouraging for many students. 

But when it comes down to it, they are not frets.  They will not make you play in tune.  Only your fingers and ears can help you do that, with or without tapes.  Personally, the only big risk I see is thinking you need them too much, and having them become a "security blanket".  But if they seem to help at this point?  What the heck, it's your violin and your playing, and you have to do what you feel is best for you at this time.

I don't really think it matters that much, and the biggest drawback is someday having to clean the adhesive from them off your violin's fingerboard.  Which is not all that big a deal.

Pinky nest?  I made and used one for a while back in my first year on the violin.  With everything else I had to be learning to do correctly, that dang bow hand pinky kept floating up off the bow. LOL  The "nest" fixed that immediately.  After a month or two I took it off and have never had that problem since.  The good habit had been formed.   Even if you left it on or put it back on, though, it doesn't interfere with movement and playing.

My thought with such add-ons is try them, and if they help, use them for a while.  If they don't help, throw them away or give them away.  For all we know, 50 yrs from now, they may be considered as much a standard part of the bow as the chin rest and shoulder rest are considered a necessary part of the violin by many folks these days.  Those were add-ons once that people argued about too.  (They still do, actually.. LOL)  

My advice would be to use whatever seems helpful to you.  Worry less, and focus more on enjoying playing.

kylesito said
Do you hear that?  Sounds like a can of worms cracking open....

Yeah, should we break out the first-aid kit?  Or make popcorn?  Maybe both.  LOL

The "tapes vs no tapes" debates tend to be endless.  But at the end of the day, it's your violin, it's your music, it's your life, and you do what you feel is best.  If anybody else doesn't like it, they can go... well, this is a family friendly forum, so I'll leave that sentence unfinished. LOL

I was kind of surprised to find out that most teachers I've talked to consider the tapes useful.  Marks on the bow, too.  

Another thing I found interesting was that the consensus was mostly that you teach adult students exactly the same as small children.  Maybe make some adaptations to make some of the games a bit less "kiddie" when you present them, but still find a way to do them.  The reason I was given was that an adult beginner and a 4 yr old beginner still have to learn all the same things to learn how to play.

The exception sometimes will be if the adult student has prior experience/education on another instrument, since then they'll already know some things that can apply to violin and may have developed some ear.

The one definite difference that I recall that was mentioned was that for very small children (think 3-5 yrs old), you can start them with a "Thumb Under Frog" bow hold.  They may not have the hand/finger strength or control to be able to hold the bow in the "Professional" way at first.  

Back to the issue of tapes (not to mention marks on the bow or a sticker at the octave point of the fingerboard and etc), I didn't find them essential when I was starting on violin.  They looked kind of comfortingly like frets the first few days (I'm primarily a guitarist).  But after that I just ignored them until they wore off.  No big deal.  But I've played assorted instruments over most of my life, and I can hear when I'm in tune and not.  I have noticed that some adults who did not get much music education in their early years do seem to have trouble with that for the first couple years, until their ears develop a bit.  People aren't born knowing what a major and minor scale or a Dm7 arpeggio should sound like.  If tapes or some other marker help the folks that are new to music or haven't used their ear in enough years that such things help.. well I figure it is a good thing if it gets them playing.

Just figured I'd toss a couple more cents worth of gasoline on this fire. LOL

Ok RedViolin, I'll explain about marks on the bow, since they actually would relate to your original question as much as tapes and etc do.

You're likely to keep hearing "play with nice full bow strokes" a lot.  But what is a full bow is NOT always the entire physical length of the bow.  Some people's arms are a bit shorter than others, or the shoulder moves just a little bit different, while bows (except the fractional ones) are all pretty much the same.

So what is *your* full bow?  Well, you stand with good posture and use good form (checking in a mirror or having someone who knows how to play watch you) and do a few strokes and see how long a stroke you can draw without your elbow going 100% straight and without messing up that form and posture.  If you can get all the way to the tip without that happening, great.  Then your natural stroke is long enough for "full bow" to mean the whole physical bow.

But if you can't go quite that far comfortably, then you put a marker like a little bit of tape or a small sticker to mark where you should stop.  If you want something that won't show (even if you were playing at Carnegie Hall), then tie a loop of thread there and trim the ends very short.  

That is probably the most important mark, since going past that runs the risk of injury.  Very important with say, a little kid who just got moved to the next size up of fractional violin, and they haven't really "grown into it" all the way yet.  But also important for any adult where their arm/stroke doesn't naturally allow using the whole physical length of the bow.  If you extend your arm all the way out straight, especially when playing enthusiastically, you can easily overextend your elbow joint.  If you don't know what is bad about hyperextending the elbow joint, then you can ask any tennis player.  Especially the ones who can't play for a few weeks or more right now and have something like an Ace bandage or brace on their elbow while they heal up.  

The other reason not to go past that point (and why some feel it is worthwhile to mark the point at least until you are sure you will not forget with the ton of stuff you have to remember anyway when playing) is your form.  If you reach down further than you can comfortably go while keeping good form, then your form automatically suffers.  The upper arm will have to go back or the right shoulder will have to slouch down, etc.  You end up "practising something wrong", just like everyone worries about when they are starting out.   

Now, from some of your posts in this thread, it sounds like you just might be a little smaller than the average adult, if I read correctly?  So you might want to check for that. 

Other marks, in brief..

Well, if the person keeps hitting the frog when playing down near the frog, maybe an extra visual warning can be good for a while.

A mark at the center of the bow can help with having a better idea of where you are.  I'll admit, I have a piece of thread tied there on mine.  I probably don't need it anymore, but it doesn't interfere with playing and nobody notices it, so I never got around to taking it off.  LOL But for beginners, depending on the "school" of teaching, the center mark can serve an additional purpose.  The person I was learning from prefers to start beginners with using the whole upper half of the bow and using strictly a martele stroke for the early exercises and pieces.  I can explain the reasons why if you like (I asked), but I'm trying not to de-rail your thread and so I'll stick to the topic and move on.  Suffice it for now to say it shows the beginner exactly how much bow they are supposed to be using on the first exercises and very early pieces.

Other marks are sometimes added, sometimes just for a few lessons, for exercises on timing or later for more advanced exercises like trying to get 8 nice even staccato notes out of one bow stroke.