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Posts: 2879
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
Worst nail to break!!
So I cracked my index finger nail nearly 2 weeks ago and have been gluing it before playing and as long as i dont thrash it, it was holding! then yesterday during some chores the glues broke and i snagged the nail on some clothes and ripped it right across... almost completely off. I glued it for the day then the glue crumbled and i decided to break the nail off and get it over with ( i was a little drunk and thought..."Never mind, it'll be fine to play without it")
I was wrong, its a complete nightmare!!! I tried to play today and its horrible, its broken right down past the join and every technique bar pulgar stuff is out of the question!
so guess ill be practicing alzapua. which is prob a good thing.
So surely index is the worst nail to break cant even strum decent compas without feeling weak and naked about the finger!
i once broke my i nail and fixed it by glueing two of my toe nails on it. i wouldn't really recommend this. it can be detrimental to your social life but it did work.
maybe you can practice ma picados. or even eamm rasgueados for fun. if anything your m finger might get stronger.
I recently had my most traumatic experience with this around four weeks ago when i completely lost my entire thumb nail. It has only just grown back to an acceptable length for normal playing but i read on the internet that naturally the thumb nail is the slowest to grow and grows about 3mm per month!! and without it there's no pulgar, alzapua, rasgeados are affected, even the bass elements of tremolo etc sound terrible and your hand feels out of balance completely!!! BUt saying that i have lost index finger nails before and that's also a complete nightmare as im sure you all know!!
I take it you mean, the entire bit of the nail that extends past the end of the finger or do you mean the ENTIRE nail!!! cos that would be particularly painful...
PS sorry ADMINS..think i sent this as an abuse post by mistake!!!
yes i just mean the bit that extends over the end of the flesh of the finger! I tend to describe this in a bit of an exagerated way due to how annoyed i was by the experience! but i still had all the loss of abilites i put in my first post which was traumatic to say the least! There are supposed to be things you can eat to grow nails faster someone advised me to eat royal jelly i dont know if anyone has heard of anything that would work? I normally have pretty strong nails so its a total nightmare when they break!
Dont tell me about bees. I was stung IN THE HAND by one 30 mins before the start of the last gig. That never happened to me and i didnt even know if i wasnt allergic against it. It helped to put onions on it.
You should have grabbed it and swalloed it, BEFORE it stung you in the hand!
And gained all the macrobiotic benefits including strengthening of the nails and having really healthy skin and hair and being really good-looking into the bargain.
I recently had my most traumatic experience with this around four weeks ago when i completely lost my entire thumb nail. It has only just grown back to an acceptable length for normal playing but i read on the internet that naturally the thumb nail is the slowest to grow and grows about 3mm per month!! and without it there's no pulgar, alzapua, rasgeados are affected, even the bass elements of tremolo etc sound terrible and your hand feels out of balance completely!!! BUt saying that i have lost index finger nails before and that's also a complete nightmare as im sure you all know!!
It's perfectly possible to practice every flamenco technique without nails. And I would say that being able to play without nails is an indication of good technique. Key elements for the right hand are strength and accuracy - both of which have pretty much nothing to do with nails (for a good player). Tone of course is another matter - but after a while the skin becomes hard and the sound improves somewhat.
once again i sppose i am exagerating!! Of course the mechanics of all techniques can be played just exactly the same after a nail break as they were before. I was really talking about the lack of decent sound produced at least to begin with which was a tad frsutrating. I wouldnt really agree that an ability to play without nails is indicative of a good technique though i think actually you are exactly the same player technically with nails or without. But it does make you annoyingly quiet for dance class playing and as you corretly point out the main loss is in tone quality!
Well this guy didn't only break his nails, but also the limbs attached to his nails....though he's able to play, with his feet. (dont know if he has grown his tow-nails....
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Of course the mechanics of all techniques can be played just exactly the same after a nail break as they were before. I was really talking about the lack of decent sound produced at least to begin with which was a tad frsutrating. I wouldnt really agree that an ability to play without nails is indicative of a good technique though i think actually you are exactly the same player technically with nails or without. But it does make you annoyingly quiet for dance class playing and as you corretly point out the main loss is in tone quality! 
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