Do you play with nails or bare flesh?

[TBman]

Just curious...

[rick-slo]

? That's a midi, so what is the question?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

? That's a midi, so what is the question?

I didn't have the title of the thread correct, I fixed it.

[Roccorobb]

Nails. I learned to play that way and I've tried to cut them off but I just can't do it. The feel is so different.

[Golffishny]

I pay with bare fingers, but most of my flesh is covered.

[Skip Ellis]

Bare fingers always have (60 years) - don't care for the sound or feel of nails

[offkey]

Weak nails here, always breaking and tearing if I let them grow at all. So I cut them right back to the quick and play with my fingertips but use the nail end for effect when I choose. A weak nail can be pretty strong if it is stuck to the finger right out to the end. Plus I strum with the back of my nails. So I would say, both bare flesh and nails.

[FrankHS]

Yes. I play with nails or bare flesh. On a good day, both at same time, or as described by the linked Chapdelaine .pdf in recent thread, ".000001 mm apart from each other." (Exaggeration for effect, no doubt.) Another really beautiful (no nails) way is via Virginia Luque, a professional concert guitarist who readily admits in her pedagogy, "My nailless approach is more difficult," (than using nails.)

No thanks, I like good, easily produced tone.

[David Eastwood]

Never mind - just realized this was in the Classical section. Oops.

[Red_Label]

My opinion is that short nails filed correctly and sanded with 600 grit sandpaper lend themselves to a full tone and precise technique. Too long and the playing can be bright and clickity-clacky. A short nail combined with the tip of the flesh can produce a very smooth and full tone. I believe that I started to form that opinion during my time as a classical guitar performance major in a university program headed by Christopher Parkening... who had excellent, full tone... much like his mentor, Andres Segovia.

This is also the case when playing a guitar with a plectrum. Overtones can be acheived by playing with a combination of both the pick and fingertip, that cannot be acheived with just one or the other. Thirty-five years as an electric guitarist has taught me that. There are certainly many great exceptions (Django Reinhardt on the one extreme, Mark Knopfler on the other), but most great electric players play where the pick tip and finger tips contact the string at nearly the same time. The key variable being the percentage of each used.

[redir]

I started off playing with nails but do to a pesky little genetic condition it's impossible for me to grow proper nails any more. I quite playing the classical guitar for several years becasue I simply could not stand it. Then I discovered this guy's website, https://rmclassicalguitar.com/, and once again I am learning and enjoying classical guitar.

[Carey]

I use both: no thumbnail, and short nails for I and M. Lately I've been trying
to go with no nail on A, but will probably go back to a short nail on that finger, too.

[TBman]

I'm trying to stay of the pads of my fingers. I get a lot of noise when I use the pads, so its either the tips or the nails and tips. That is taking a while to get consistent - and then I have to get consistent tone from finger to finger as well.

Practice practice practice practice.......

[M Hayden]

Mostly nails until they wear down, then I whine about them being too short for a week while they grow back.