First try with a plastic nail..

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Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

First try with a plastic nail..

Broke my pinky nail yesterday whilst gardening. Up til now my solution would have been to build up a synthetic nail using the Savarez nail kit (adhesive silk wraps and glue), but this time I tried a false nail kit from Boots.

First impressions are very good - it files easily, seems to be very firmly attached and best of all it took about ten minutes to sort out, whereas building a nail with silk wraps is very fiddly and tedious and would have taken me about an hour, allowing the glue to dry in between layers. Even then I sometimes end up with a gooey mess and have to start again.

I don't know how much the salons charge for this, but this is incredibly cheap too - the kit comes with a box of dozens of nails of all sizes and a tube of glue, all for under ten pounds. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts, and what condition my real nail is in when it comes off.

If it last several weeks I could quite happily get used to using this, at least on my pinky which I generally keep longer (to balance out rasgueado) and which is therefore more prone to snagging.

_____________________________

Spanish Guitarist in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 10:51:31

Billyboy

Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Your Pinky is not an important nail just used for Rasguados, whether it would stand up to the battering of being on your i, or m finger is a different story.
Dave

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 11:35:12

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Billyboy)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Billyboy

Your Pinky is not an important nail just used for Rasguados,

Not sure what you mean Dave - my pinky IS very important for rasgueados.
Jon

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 12:04:25

Billyboy

Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Jon Boyes)

How do you do rasguados Jon, I only use the pinky for triplets, occasionally 5 finger rasguados for like Panaderos Flamenca
Dave

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 14:14:05

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Billyboy)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Billyboy
How do you do rasguados Jon,

triplet: P-I-P (first P is up)
three stroke: C-I-P
four stroke: C-I-P-P (last P is up) or P-C-I-P (first P is up)

Jon

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 14:23:40

Billyboy

Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Wow Ive never seen that combo before, never heard anyone play triplets p up i down, p down before,its usually (a) instead of i, or four stroke rasgueados that are not -a down, m down i down then i up or starting with the pinky if its a five stroke. Do you never use that combo? . You seem to use a variation of triplet technique of doing a thumb up and thumb down stroke for all rasgueados, I'm assuming C is the pinky.,
Cheers
Dave

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 19:39:19

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Billyboy)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Billyboy
You seem to use a variation of triplet technique of doing a thumb up and thumb down stroke for all rasgueados, I'm assuming C is the pinky.,

You've got it - al my ras are wrist generated. I have an overuse condition called focal hand dystonia which destroyed all fine co-ordination between I, M and A so I can't do anything that uses these fingers together in combination - arpeggios, picado, rasgeados, nothing. I've had to develop a whole repertoire of unorthdox techniques to be able to play. I'm fine tuning a new one right now which I can't wait to share with people.

Cheers
Jon

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2004 8:35:07

Billyboy

Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Jon Boyes)

How do you play flamenco if you can't do arppegios or picado?
Dave

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2004 11:29:57

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Billyboy)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Billyboy
How do you play flamenco if you can't do arppegios or picado?
Dave

I didn't say that, I said I couldn't do them with those fingers in the conventional way. I use P and I extensively, and ocasionally C, in arpeggios.

For single line runs I currently use P-I, which is how the lutenists used to do it.

Jon

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 7 2004 11:56:23

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: First problem with the plastic n... (in reply to Jon Boyes)

The first problem I've identified with this is that it doesn't sound right. The new false nail is not as bright sounding as my natural nails, and certainly when used in sequence with them the difference is obvious. The plastic nail has a tubby, thicker, plastic sound to it and it seems harder to get that satisfying 'ping' sound of a rapidly flicked rasgueado.

Do they make these things out of different materials, or do you false nails guys simply make do?

Jon

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2004 11:06:21

Guest

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Billyboy)

Dave

Arpeggios and picado are optional extras in cante accompaniment, not essentials. Perico el del Lunar damaged a tendon which left him with only p and i. As a result he became famous as one of the most jondo accompanists in the history of flamenco. (Of course, he had a phenomenal knowledge of cante as well

Sean

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2004 14:26:02

Billyboy

Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Guest)

Cante accompany is almost an art form in itself, which usually only Spanish people have opportunity to learn, but I agree there are always ways round things, Django pardon the spelling, for instance.
Dave

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 8 2004 19:02:37

Billyboy

Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Jon Boyes)

quote:

have an overuse condition called focal hand dystonia which destroyed all fine co-ordination between I

Was this caused by flamenco playing Jon. The tendons of the hands are delecate things, I think it was Don Peron Prdon the spelling that mentioned damaging the right hand ligaments by doing too much Baile accompaneing
Dave

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 10 2004 2:42:07

Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

RE: First try with a plastic nail.. (in reply to Billyboy)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Billyboy
Was this caused by flamenco playing Jon. The tendons of the hands are delecate things,

Nope, did it when studying classical guitar, although it was a result of overpracticing fast rollling arpeggios and tremolo so it could quite easily result from flamenco.

No tendon or tissue damage at all, thankfully. The 'damage' is caused by a smearing of the map of the fingers in the cerebral cortex. Upshot of this is if you try to move one finger, another one moves instead (for example). Its a bit like waking up and discovering you have the same control over your individual fingers as you do over your toes.

Jon

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 14 2004 8:00:11