The flat or slightly curved surface on the neck of a stringed instrument (like a violin or guitar) where strings are pressed by the fingers to change pitch.
Compound of 'finger' (Old English 'finger') and 'board' (Old English 'bord'). The term became standardized in musical instrument making and terminology by the 16th-17th centuries as stringed instruments developed.
The fingerboard is why guitars and violins sound different even when played the same way—a guitar's flat fingerboard with frets is completely different from a violin's curved fretless fingerboard, meaning each instrument teaches your fingers completely different spatial logic, which is why violinists sometimes struggle switching to guitar!
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