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Question for guys : How does your girlfriend feel about your long nails ?
My gf hates it, thinks it's ugly and at least weird. "Cut the damn thing, they are longer than mine's..." well, it's a ongoing war since we met, and my friend that has been 7 years ago.
Although, ofcourse, she loves when i play and always comments on that crisp sound that only nails can give
Yeah they do look a bit strange, but then so do mine - very short nails on my left and longer on my right. I worry about injury to my delicate skin, but Kate says they are good for backscratching. I think that's a good response - point out the usefulness. And then of course act on it.
exactly!! I've never met a girl I'd consider giving up the guitar for.
quote:
they are longer than mine
tell her to grow hers then.
I'm guessing that its more of a fun arguement and not something you are gonna break up over.
When I first started playing flamenco I was very aware of my new long nails and often thought they put girls off. If they did put girls off that was fine because the way I saw it was.....
.........Any girl that was put off by simple aesthetic anomalies wasn't really worthy of me anyway. perhaps if shed used her brain and considered why they were long she may have found her answer, or if she came and talked to me and asked me why they were long, then even better.
And like you say oonce you start playing they love it.
Yeah that's true, you play a Bluebird on a guitar they are ready to put out.
Not that we should justify the actions, but for flamenco, they'll have to compromise. It's like in the story where a man is on the plane about to take off. After plane not taking off for longer than normal a man asks a stewardess "What's wrong?". She says "the pilot hears the noise in the left engine". After a while a plane takes off and the same man calls a stewardess and asks "Did they fix the engine?". The stewardess answers "No, we changed the pilot".
So if the girlfriend doesn't like the nails, change the girlfriend.
Well... you dont need very long nails for good sound. Mine are looking very normal except the "undertaker"-tumbnail! haha.. But that was never a problem for any person I met. Just some coworkers said : WTF??? hehe... The bigger problem is the glue which looks gay...
When I first started playing flamenco I was very aware of my new long nails and often thought they put girls off.
I can't believe that's true because women put up with a lot of rubbish, long nails are small fry. Sorry Stu but they must just have been using that as an excuse to escape something worse.
No problems here. If there were we wouldn't be together - never understood people who paid attention to such banal cr@p. Now the importance of keeping the nails clean I do understand, that's something different.
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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things
HaHa! Yes my wife exploits that fact ALL the time... and if I use my left hand to scratch, she'll say: "Hey use your other hand" ...
I usually get strange looks due to the fact I have stuff (nail hardner) coated on them, lol. Esp. from the guys at work. One wise guy said to me: "you know the really good tough nail hardner is this pink stuff... "
Mine always asked me why I dind't play with a pick ........
But she knows how important flamenco is for me so she's very proud that I have something where I'm so passionate about.......and of course those tremolo falseta's I always play for her....:-)
Only thing she's a bit pissed out about is the fact that I'm saving for a new guitar (3000€) when we are about to live together and we actually need every euro :-). Maybe she has a point there.......but I'm not convinced yet :-)
RE: Nails and girlfriends (in reply to Jan Willem)
Don't you just hate it when people say "Hey can't you use a thumbpick and fingerpicks like the folksingers use?" I used to explain why it wouldn't work, but now I just say "Na!"
cheers,
Ron
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A good guitar might be a good guitar But it takes a woman to break your heart
When I get lazy and let mine grow when not obsessing over picados
I get complement all he time from Women I don't know. My wife says their cougars trying to pick me up and take me home because they think it means I am sensual -- maybe even romanic? I say they have a point.
Don't you just hate it when people say "Hey can't you use a thumbpick and fingerpicks like the folksingers use?" I used to explain why it wouldn't work, but now I just say "Na!"
cheers,
Ron
Actually, what is the explanation? Crisper sound? Tradition? Is there a way to shave down fingerpicks to the right length so they actually work well?
fingerpicks are gross. they dont sound good (think acryllic and multiply by the smell of the worst thing you can think of, to the exponent tickticktick)
any girl i've ever had ask me about my fingernails i have usually ended up in rather close physical proximity to. this is deinitely a point of conversation where physical closeness is required. makes a great ice breaker.
i'm sure florian can instruct you on the proper technique. lol
Ron, I'm not saying one should actually go out and get fingerpicks But I'm wondering why. Like, someone asked me that once and I had no good answer except "well, it just feels like it wouldn't work......" What are the specifics, of why it would be a bad idea?
ramparts, I used to use fingerpicks when I played Folk/Blues steelstring stuff. The finger ones curve downwards, so doing any kind of downstroke is impossible as the string doesn't slide off, but gets caught between the pick and the flesh.
The thumbpick sticks out at 90 degrees from the thumb, and would get caught on trying to play say.. alzapua.
Playing Flamenco at the higher level involves very high intimacy with the strings and very short movements, which is not possible due to the "play" in how these devices fit onto the fingers or thumb.
I didn't mean my last post as a joke!
Really!...buy a set for a couple of dollars and try them out and you'll immediately see the impracticality, rather than just trying to imagine it.
Playing with a flat pick (as ToddK does) IS feasible, especially if you can train your other 3 fingers to do the rest of the work. In that case you are really only missing the index finger and this technique has the advantage of being able to play fast pick picado (doubling up) which would be very difficult to do with the thumb, since very small thumb upstrokes are very weak and difficult to co-ordinate.
The overall sound is a bit different, depending on the material you choose to play, but as you can hear on Todd's uploads, can be extremely good when done to a high level of proficiency.
cheers,
Ron
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A good guitar might be a good guitar But it takes a woman to break your heart
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I think that's a good response - point out the usefulness. And then of course act on it.
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