I learned music on the guitar a bit and tried to play tunes from songs books. They never really sounded like tunes because most songs don't much of a tune.

About 6 years ago (BCE) I started to learn jigs and such like from the dots on a newly aquired mandola. Within about a year I could get a tune of the page after 2 or 3 tries. I think the reason is jigs go 123, 123, 123 diddly, duddly, diddly and so on - and so that tune gets of the page quite quickly - if only I had learned this before the war!

Did people in Greece, China Egypt or Central America leave us any dots?