Ricardo -> RE: Nails. What to do with them and how? (Aug. 28 2011 17:04:38)
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quote:
I wished my nails would be growing slower. If wanted to keep them in best shape I would need to file them every 3 days or so. Well, in order to maintain the shape and tone I am demoing in the link I posted above, I file EVERY DAY, and sometimes between songs. You really probably have not experimented yourself so much with the importance of nail shape, as it really makes a huge impact vs. what your post implied. Years ago I experimented with Shear's relaxed tip/middle joint movement of rest strokes. The effect I realized is like for a fast picker to use a very thin gage pick vs a thicker one. You just can't reset fast enough to control speed and rhythm. Picado for example needs those tip joints stiff, at least the split second before you release the string. anyway I had round nails before like most. I put glue and this stiffened the nails and when I took the glue off, I had a more crisp sound because the nail flexes over the string, like a bow or "bird wing" vs a stiff tortoise shell ([:D]). But I could not keep the nails protected from breaks because the rasgueados I was doing for dancers, and as often I was playing an practicing, wears em down. So I had to have the glue, and suffered for a while a brittle sound (to me at least). In addition, I have some minor arthritic pain in the m finger from perhaps some old injury. (rain and snow storms bring a minor ache at times on the tip joint). So playing with those contoured nail shape I would get some discomfort in the tip joint after some hours of playing or arps especially. Not really "hooking" but it was an uncomfortable feeling. Fortunately I noticed in fotos and vids of some players such as Tomatito, Chicuelo, Paco, Manolo and Nuñez (in person), so all the guys with a crisp clean tone, that showed nails sort of flat lined with edges, not contoured like mine. I revisited the Pumping Nylon Video I had gotten in college and started filing flat, even though it took time to grow the edges out. Literally OVER NIGHT the resistance and brittle tone I had been experiencing for a few years already was GONE. It really is THAT significant. Crisp tone, smooth release of strings, no more discomfort in poor m finger (except for snow storms [;)]), no pushing or pulling through the string for volume, etc etc. In one day that was it. I could imagine a potential for developing some FD symptoms had I not changed that nail shape. The only 2 draw backs from what I had before is you have to be more accurate at maintaining your hand position for arps (you dont play off various edges anymore cuz you dont need nails to flex or hook, the string glides off the straight line, so you have to be in the same position you choose to file you nails at), and in order to maintain the shape you have to file everyday. One day goes by and your nail grows and the shape changes too. The file flat method slices through any weird ways a nail can grow, and the amount of glue or stiffness of nail has little bearing anymore on crispness or roundness of tone. So if I loose my nail file, I get worried. [:D]
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