I'm sure its a repeated question-i'm new here and just starting my study of Flamenco guitar. My intentions are not to play in a group or perform, simply to play for myself. Starting at 51yrs old and limited daily practice time(i am hoping for 30 minutes consistently). I've played for about 4 years steel string fingerstyle and realize there is what i call sharpness/crispness one will lose with no nail for the right hand. i prefer short nails on both hands due to personal reasons and somewhat my job-although the job doesn't limit that choice.

so anyone who uses short or no nails, please offer advice, your thoughts.

thanks
daryl

I keep my nails, except thumb and little finger shorter than most. Usually I have little or no nails on my fingers as they break easy. For the last year my ring finger had the nail split and as it grows out so does the split and I have to file it back to the flesh in hopes of solid nail eventually growing out. If I break my thumb, I am at a loss since my style requires mostly thumb work and the nail is necessary for the upstrokes that I use in everything I play. Loss of the little finger nail really messes up my old style 4 fingered rasqueado. I think while learning keeping all but the thumb nail shorter is a good idea. With no nails however be careful about wanting to put your fingers to far into the strings on arpeggios, etc. This is not good just as too long of nails can have a beginner or intermediate depending too much on the nail and not getting the flesh contact needed.

Nails are so individual, but I have recently seen several top flamenco players advocating shorter nails than I was used to on the CG side. A nail that just barely extends beyond the pad of the finger works very well, even increasing accuracy by requiring a more exact placement of the finger. I find that length to be very "work acceptable".

The two exceptions I see are the thumb, which seems to need a lot more length, and the little finger, which might need more to "catch" for a four-finger rasgueo. Adam del Monte being a great example of this.

I also have problems with recurring splits, thumbs in my case. I'm rubbing with Onymyrh and hoping.

byron

Sam and Byron

thanks for the reply and info-i really appreciate your thoughts.

i just received a bottle of Onymyrh-thought i would try it out and see what happens. I've always cut my nails very short-just a personal thing-but i do have this hankering to let the right hand nails go out just to meet the fingertips so i can use this in my study of Flamenco.

d