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RE: Nail shape for different guitar techniques
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Ricardo
Posts: 14906
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: Nail shape for different guitar ... (in reply to Stu)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Stu I kinda jumped off this thread when it ventured into nail coating products but ..... I just want to reiterate my gratitude to Ricardo who gave me new info on nail shape. This might be the most advancement in my playing in years due to simply following the advice here. It's completely opened up a new level of picado for me which in turn has opened up all other techniques and simply down to changing my nails. It makes me fret about how I may have advanced before if id learned this earlier. But oh well. I'm enjoying my playing more than ever now. I'd strongly recommend following the advice in Ricardo's posts here if you find yourself hitting a brick wall with your playing and your nails aren't already shaped like he recommends. X I am getting this printed on a T-shirt. Honestly this is a bit counter intuitive topic. I myself encountered this idea first when I was in high school, pretending to grow nails for guitar summer camp (I was a pick player but could play a bit of classical). Both my father and my camp teacher were trying to explain SOMETHING about this. Of course this filing thing seemed nonsensical. Later in College I had no choice but to grow my nails and file them again (music major and guitar class requirement), but I thought this foo foo nail shape thing was not something a flamenco player would do, and that was the path I was recently choosing to take instead. It was suggested to use Pumping Nylon the book with pictures drawn in that talked about ramps and such, and I thought that sounded vaguely like the weird thing my Dad was advocating. But, again I ignored it. Flamenco practice eventually lead me down the path of glue products. After graduating I remember struggling a bit with a joint issue from an old injury on my m finger right hand, and not always happy with my tone. When the glue was off the tone was better, less harsh. One day, just out on a whim, I purchased in Guitar Center the Pumping Nylon video. He explained the nail shape in a more 3D context and I understood better, which explained properly those 2d pictures in his book I saw several years ago. Finally, that picture of Tomatito on the insert of Paseo de Castaños informed me that the concept was fairly common in flamenco to get the crisp picado and arpegio sound, even with the glue. So I FINALLY tried it and the first thing I noticed was that arthritic pain in my m finger disappeared, the tone got crispy, and like you said “sliding on the ice” took getting used to. So it was something I had to finally be convinced of myself after nearly a decade of exposure to the idea. It is not easy for everybody to grasp. So I am rather forgiving about revisiting the topic when it pops up here over and over.
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CD's and transcriptions available here: www.ricardomarlow.com
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 21 2024 12:05:19
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trivium91
Posts: 222
Joined: Jan. 24 2022
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RE: Nail shape for different guitar ... (in reply to Ricardo)
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[image][/image] quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo The shape should not change. I agree that longer might feel better for arpegio/tremolo. The shape should be a flat filed angle, meaning don’t round or contour your nail to the tip. You should have more white material on either one side or both sides compared to the middle (depending on the ramp or if straight across). I have a ramp going up away from thumb on index, and a ramp going up away from pinky on the ring, but middle is essentially straight across. Now I say flat or “straight” referring to a 2 dimensional plane, but the nail is 3 dimensional. The third dimensional arc is ideal such that on the middle finger, for example, you rest the flesh on the string until two points contact the string. As you traverse the 2D plane, the string travels the arc along route until the two points converge and release somewhere along the flat line 2d plane, near the middle of the arc. Some people don’t have a good arc in the 3D so they have trouble actually setting up the plant on flesh and two points on the nail. For these folks I recommend use CA glue, as it bends the nail after drying into that nice 3d Arc that you need for good tone. The length depends on how steep you tilt the arc into the file but the file, again should only be filing FLAT in 2D. If you have a ramp, the idea is you only have one contact point on the low side of the ramp, that releases, again, somewhere along that arc. Why do I use opposite ramps on index and ring? Because when I bend my fingers the two fingers curl inward toward the palm at opposite angles, were as middle finger moves straight down. I have noted some classical players, unlike flamencos play with a straight wrist, such that relative to the strings, the fingers always attack at an angle, never straight on, so they will necessarily ramp fingers all the same direction. Here you can read opinion from a convert on foro, that went from no nails to what I suggested at some point. http://www.foroflamenco.com/tm.asp?m=256919&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&tmode=&smode=&s=#257457 This is super helpful Ricardo, I found through trial and error I needed the same ramp on index and 'a' finger, which is also opposite of each other. it makes my thumb rest stroke arpeggios more uniform and less choppy. I ramp my middle finger the same as my index but I think I will try straight across as you do. Just sucks as once you make a change to the nails it takes a while to grow back until you can try something else.
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date May 22 2024 15:22:21
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