Reverend John Tufts (26 February 1689 – 17 August 1750) was an early American music educator.
He graduated from Harvard in 1708, and was minister at Newbury, Massachusetts, from 1714 until 1738,[1][2][3] where he preached sermons that disparaged music illiteracy.
He abandoned the traditional round notes and substituted the first letters of the four solmization syllables (fa, sol, la, mi) on the staff.
If two letters were written closely together and had a slur mark over them (which Tufts called a bow), they were eighth notes.
[1][2] Tufts was the most significant figure in American music education until the 1820s, when Lowell Mason led it in a new direction.