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In praise of shorter nails. . .
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britguy
Posts: 712
Joined: Dec. 26 2010
From: Ontario, Canada
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 In praise of shorter nails. . .
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For a few years I've been using false Guitar Players plastic glue-on nails (due mainly to farm work damaging my real nails).
Over the past few winter months I've been in and out of hospital a couple of times (nothing too serious) and during that time my plastic glue-ons fell off and were not replaced. As I was too weak to play seriously anyway, it did not matter.
A few weeks ago I started playing again; using the weak little 1/32 inch stubs that remained of my natural nails. Way shorter and softer than my plastic glue-ons. In order to play at all I had to readjust my hand/finger relationship to the strings. Using much closer and shorter movements.
To my surprize; my arpeggios - particularly the p i m a m i ones - sounded much cleaner, and better timed, than before. Same with picado. Tremolos were not as good, and could not use my ring fingernail stroking upwards ( like in old-style seguiriyas and tarantas remates).
But, the big surprize was just how clean and crisp the arpeggios sounded. And my classical playing seems to sound much better, too. Nicer tone quality. . .
Now my question is; why is this?
A- because the nails (flimsy stubs) are shorter, and more flesh is contacting the strings, or:
B - because I'm using my natural nails instead of plastic glue-ons?
Any opinions out there. . . .
_____________________________
Fruit farmer, Ontario, Canada
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Date Apr. 18 2014 14:19:36
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Robug
Posts: 28
Joined: Apr. 18 2014
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RE: In praise of shorter nails. . . (in reply to jshelton5040)
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Greetings John, I cannot tell you how pleased I am to find someone familiar with the Maestro Ramos. The month I spent in that small mountain town in Mexico has been one of the highlights of my life. The Maestro rented a villa there and eight of us would meet with him every morning (Monday through Friday) and work collectively and individually. Midmorning, we had coffee and sweets and then more work. At noon, we would go for a nice lunch, then siesta, then practice (we used Segreras instruction books for techniques etc., Segovia's 24 scales, and then individual pieces), then dinner, then practice, practice, practice. If one could choose a life from all others, I would have chosen just to stay there and be his student in that exquisite paradise of a small town. When one of the students commented the workload was large, the Maestro simply smiled and said "The nights are long". I have had a long, very experience-rich life but that month stands out.
Saludos de Panama
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Date Apr. 20 2014 0:48:00
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britguy
Posts: 712
Joined: Dec. 26 2010
From: Ontario, Canada
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RE: In praise of shorter nails. . . (in reply to aeolus)
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quote:
Congrats. You are about to enter the sacred circle of the octogenarians.
Advanced age is dealing with the slow degradation of the body. But it's better than extinction
Yes, by Christmas I'll have turned 80 (If I make it that far?).
Hard to believe, that I can clearly remember the bombs exploding in 1940. . .
And dealing with the 'slow degradation of the body' (not so slow in my case) is not easy, either.
Following two recent urological operations within three months, my nails are not great, and a sharp arthritic pain in my left index finger makes playing good barre's very hard.
But, I still manage to excersize every morning, swim three times week and looking forward to starting work down at the farm next week. (And fishing opens in two more weeks).
"But it's better than extinction".
I'm beginning to wonder?
Play on . . . . . .
_____________________________
Fruit farmer, Ontario, Canada
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Date Apr. 23 2014 13:12:08
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Ruphus
Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010
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RE: In praise of shorter nails. . . (in reply to britguy)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: britguy
quote:
But it's better than extinction
I'm beginning to wonder?
Guess he´s right.
Last night there was a former talkmaster on TV who while jogging in the woods had fallen clinically dead for 8 minutes. ( Luckily in company of her husband who managed to revive her.)
Stuffed with amazingly accurate memories on the whole accident, she stated that her abscence was a mere black nothing, just as I expect it to be. ( Unfortunately, yes, but soberly estimated.)
That´s what there´s to be expected as most likely ( while those colported `after-life´experiences with calmness & light, etc. are for most explained banally by neuorologists).
From there, with life potentially as a miniature flash of rich sensation and opportunity, nested in an infinite plain nothing, we better take chances on the here and now to be benefitting and beneficent.
Instead of being careless and bovine, with a fancy of decepting some judge somewhere and going on with an other life where one could then finally work on getting better.
There is that one and only chance, so it quite seems, and the quality of it autonomous.
Who wants to be smart with cheating in mythological games, will only waste himself as underdeveloped fool.
Ruphus
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Date Apr. 23 2014 14:23:12
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Ricardo
Posts: 14806
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: In praise of shorter nails. . . (in reply to Ruphus)
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quote:
From there, with life potentially as a miniature flash of rich sensation and opportunity, nested in an infinite plain nothing, we better take chances on the here and now to be benefitting and beneficent.
Instead of being careless and bovine, with a fancy of decepting some judge somewhere and going on with an other life where one could then finally work on getting better.
Good god man, if what you say is true, then it must be time to give up on that ridiculous lawsuit, move to California to enjoy that last fleeting years of sun, waves, tanned girls, guitar on the beach, and let your poor dogs frolic in the sand.
_____________________________
CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com
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Date Apr. 23 2014 14:37:43
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: In praise of shorter nails. . . (in reply to britguy)
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You are in good company, Britguy. In 1902, at the age of 50, Francisco Tarrega began cutting his nails as short as he possibly could, apparently because he thought the sound produced was much more to his liking than that produced with nails. He played without nails for the rest of his life.
Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."
--Rudyard Kipling
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Date Apr. 25 2014 3:47:16
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z6
Posts: 225
Joined: Mar. 1 2011
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RE: In praise of shorter nails. . . (in reply to Arash)
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I never played classical with no nails.
I cut my nails in order to do tapping on a midi guitar controller. I had 'dabbled' in flamenco over the years and found that my inability to play picado had been because of a nail.
With no nails the technique was easy and natural... and it sounded like poop. But if you do it a lot you develop calouses. They are pretty hard, believe me, and there is a lot of mincing pain as well. (I got lots of blisters but played through them as much as I could.)
But, when they got to a stage where a little 'tit' was forming on the tips of the fingers and I had to file them, the sound was a lot less poopy, or 'warm poopy'. (See my previous post for a description of the sound on the 'poop scale'.)
I've been over this before here. Nails are miles easier for me but only when I filed them 'right' and after glue was applied. The glue, as Ricardo had claimed, somehow took care of the hook.
I would only ever advise no nails when one has no options left at all. But I would never have 'got' picado without accidentally playing without nails. It seemed impossible for my fingers to do it.
And I was hugely skeptical of Ricardo's claim. I knew he was telling the truth but thought perhaps there was some happenstance at play. But he was, and is, spot on.
But absolutely, having the right nails is wonderful. It gives the whole thing a very easy feel. Without nails, there has to be a lot of power going into it but with nails the relaxation produces the power and it is much more an 'effortless' pursuit.
But, yes, even craggy, hard macho calouses are crappy compared to nails.
Put it this way, if my nails all fell apart one day I would go no nails rather than the Salon route or artificial. But only maybe because I was 'forced' in a sense to do it for long enough to know there are advantages. And these things are always and only relevant to one's own tone or abilities or the 'feel' one requires.
Imagine the difference between Paco playing with nails and without nails. He would sound like poop to himself but everyone else would have been saying, if that's poop I'm cutting mine tomorrow.
The sound, or feel, one starts with, without nails, is very different to the sound, and feel, after the skin is almost as hard as nails.
It taught me to grab the strings. To get closer to the top. To concentrate on my rhythm and accents, simply because it is harder to do so maybe a little more relaxation is invoked (as one says to one's self: this is stupid).
But maybe that's why my perception is that classical and flamenco right hand techniques are wildly different, even if they look alike. I cannot imagine classical guitar doing that (forming massive calouses) as it was endless hours of picado practise that formed them. I expect there are classical players who would see apoyando as picado but for me it is not, they are very very different. And that difference can almost be 'tracked' as a function of the relative poopyness of one's calouses.
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Date Apr. 25 2014 10:15:01
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