Just wondering - is it better to play the guitar with long nails or short nails?

Thanks!
Car Expert

I voted short but what I meant is that my nails are very short on the left hand and medium (i.e. you can see about 4mm of nail if you're looking at the palm of my hand) on the right.

(Also, if you're really, really interested, the left hand thumb nail and right hand 4th finger are hideously long.)

G

Oh dear. I voted long and by that I meant really short on the left hand and medium/long on the right. I find there is an optimum length on each hand and I file and smooth them virtually every night

The fact that they look hideously uneven to the rest of the world is neither here nor there

also I have such callouses that I have been asked in the past if I had burnt my fingers


Sara

If you play with slightly long nails on your left hand and watch yourself play in a mirror, you'll notice straight away how it affects your technique. You have to start placing your fingers at an angle to move the nails out of the way so your pads can get down to the fingerboards. Not bad if you're in first position but it gets very difficult as you move up the fretboard. So definitely short on the left hand - I don't have any white showing at all on my left hand.

On the right - I find it very difficult to grow my nails. Like gwu, I tend to keep them at about 4mm, because that's enough to get a good sound, and short enough that they're less likely to get caught on stuff and break.

If you substitute ' keyboard' for 'fingerboard', this applies to the piano too - pupils with longer nails flatten their fingers to accommodate them, and end up with a really poor hand position. One needs short nails on BOTH hands to play the piano comfortably and efficiently.

I suspect that this is why CE has posted this topic - as he plays both piano and guitar, he needs to keep both himself and his two teachers happy!

same for cello. I was always told to have short nails and now I've been playing for a while it makes sense. One of my cello teachers would make me hold my hand up (fingers pointing to the ceiling) and tap on the top of them with his bow. If he could hear the sound of the bow on my nails they were too long

I insist upon having my nails so short that they're barely there.

Matt

I have very long nails and it makes playing the guitar and cello more difficult. My cello teacher constantly tells me to cut them but I never remember to cut them and anyway my nails grow so quickly that there soon grow to the same length again. They click when I play the piano.....

Its generally accepted that long nails are the rule for correct tone and technique but i generally preffer alla Sor style than Tarrega with short nails in the traditional lute style although i use the entire PIMA unlike lute style which is generally played on just PIM.

For the left hand I agree short as possible
RIght hand I have longish nails as I teach acoustic and play classical flamenco style on steel strings using mostly nail to sound

Luckily my nails are strong so the piano playing does not suffer
Scott Tennant in his book and DVD Pumping Nylon does a whole feature on nail shapes and nail files and polishing for those of the anorak persuasion