Guidonian hand

Common card · No. 396993

The Guidonian hand was a mnemonic device used to assist people learning to sight-sing. Some form of the device may have been used by Guido of Arezzo, a medieval music theorist who wrote several treatises, including one instructing singers in sightreading. The hand occurs in some manuscripts before Guido's time as a tool to find the semitone; it does not have the depicted form until the 12th century. Sigebertus Gemblacensis in c. 1105–1110 did describe Guido using the joints of the hand to aid in teaching his hexachord. The Guidonian hand is closely linked with Guido's ideas about how to learn music, including the use of hexachords, and the first known Western use of solfège.

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