Do all you pianists make sure you're nails are cut regularly? My piano teacher harps on and on to me about cutting my nails (even though she has reeeeealy long nails herself) and although it bugs me when my nails tap, tap, tap on the piano keys, I'm not totally concerned.

Thoughts?

NM

Three of the things I spend a lot of time doing require short nails.
I play piano - the touch is so different with long and short nails, I tend to keep them short (my piano teacher was always on at me too!!), but I do keep the thumb on my RH slightly longer, for gliss-ing. It also irritates me when all that tapping interferes with the music I'm making!
I'm also studying to be a Dr - try helping in operations or examining a patient with long nails. The look my consultant gives me is enough to scare anyone into keeping them short!
I also go 10-pin-bowling. Strange but true. I've only been once with long nails and boy does it hurt when one is ripped off by a 12lb bowling ball!!

I need to do mine every week.
As soon as they are a tiny bit longer than the end of my fingers they annoy me.
Also hurst if you are doing a fast scale passage and your nail gets caught in the crack between the keys....

I also keep my nails nice and short.

I don't like the touch playing the piano with long nail. I can't stand pain when the nails get between the cracks of the keys. I hate the noise of the long nails on the keys.

More importantly I am a doctor who also look after premature babies in the intensive care unit. Nails are great places for bugs and superbugs to hide!

Actually, you're right. That hurts a lot.

NM

I had a student a few years ago who reckoned she couldn't cut her own nails.

Her excuse was always that she hadn't been able to get an appointment with her manicurist !

Nuuuuuuuurgh!

I can't bear having long nails - I keep mine really short!

I used to have long nails when I was younger & my piano teacher always used to tell me off for forgetting to cut them but now I prefer them really short as I feel I play better with them that length as my nails don't get caught in between the keys & the sound of my nails hitting the keys puts my teeth on edge (I've never really 'got' that saying but you know what I mean!)

Lisa xxx

Definitely shorter nails. They're just easier to deal with, and I hate how long nails go tap-tap-tap on the keys.

That is one of the things that I really really dislike

I hate seeing people with long nails that are badly kept or have DIRT under them!!eeeuuuggghhhh

I need to cut mine every week. Terrible clacking noises if you keep them long.

yup...i HATE the tappy sound, and i think playing is easier with shorter nails...

Seems to be a lot of medical pianists. I am a piano playing midwife! My nails need to be short for work too. I can't bear to hear the sound of nails on the keys.

It's not just that the sound is annoying.
If your nails are too long, chances are you will compromise your playing technique by trying to avoid too much tapping - partly at least - and play with fingers that are not properly in control of the notes.

Once this takes root it can be very difficult to eradicate.

I am teaching a teenage girl who began with quite long nails.
I politely pointed out the difference between hers and mine (You are not supposed to get insistant about it these days are you?).
She is about grade 1 now and her nails are getting shorter because she is finding out for herself that it works better on the piano.
Of course this doesn't happen with EVERY teenage girl... only with the ones who are REALLY interested in playing.

i have to keep mine short too, i cant stnad having long nails and playing, the sound the feeling, it really does annoy me

Even if I didn't play the piano, I would keep my nails short. I don't like having long nails and especially when you get dirt into them. They also break off easily.

As a violin player I have to keep them short on the left hand at the very least.

But I sat opposite a woman on the train the other day and her nails were so long they just curled around, I bet they were (without any exaggeration) 7 or 8 inches . They looked really grotesque and I just don't know how she did normal everyday tasks with them. She was struggling to get her rail ticket out of her bag to show to the ticket inspector.

I got to thinking how does she wipe her <cough>......self when she goes to the loo??? Ughhhhh!!

There's a competitor for the Guinness Book Of Records!

I don't know what it's like to have long nails, but reading everyone else's experiences, I think I would not recommend it.

Car Expert

very carefully ?

She'd probably poke herself up the....

ugh! how horrible!

I've always had fast growing nails, it's very annoying. I've had to keep them short for the last 20 years because I started violin and 7 and since then have always been playing something that either needed or was easier with short nails. I can't stand them long - even for typing etc!

... bass stave ?

maggie, you are incorrigable!!!

I keep mine short because I'd bite them otherwise. Plus piano playing become a whole lot dicier with tap dancing talons!

I've had pupils trying to play with long nails and it really doesn't work - as maggiemay says, it's not good for your technique. People with long nails tend to end up playing with flat and very spidery (can't think of another word to illustrate what I can see in my mind's eye) fingers and play on the wrong part of the fingertip, plus if you try to curve your fingers, you can't and the nail will slide on the keys. (And you can also damage the nails.) I have to keep mine short - it's a sacrifice I'm very willing to make - although I grow them slightly in the holidays when I'm away from a piano and unable to practise anyway, but they split very badly if I don't keep them short when playing regularly.

Long fingernails are bad on the piano, even worse on the violin... there was a violinist at school who had nails an inch long! How she ever managed to play in tune I'll never know. She seemed to manage - given how well she did with talons she would probably have been extremely competent indeed without

there don't seem to be many instruments where long nails are an advantage, besides some people's technique on the guitar and wire strung harp. Most they seem to be a positive disadvantage (even eg on the flute overly long nails would not help you hand position) - I can never understand why people who claim they want to be good at certain instruments where nails are so unhelpful can't sacrifice a tiny bit of vanity for being able to play better...

I think you need to have a longer nail on your right thumb, if you want to play the guitar... that's what I've heard anyway.

I just don't think long nails are beautiful at all, to be honest. Especially if they're unkept.

so right Janexxx
In a shop nearby recently the cashier with really really long nails went to give me my change - I had to take my hand away as I saw these talons coming towards me and the cash went everywhere. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it!!

I prefer them short. Once I forgot to cut them right before violin class and on my LH the string slipped between my fingertip (the flesh) and nail, and it hurt SO BAD...

Generally, I think people look better with short nails. I've never liked long nails (especially on guys!it looks disgusting!)

Hi NM,
Is it just pianists? What about guitarists and violinists, I wonder??? I hate long nails and will find any excuse to get my kids to cut theirs!

Tess

I keep my nails short but I'm begining to think I have odd fingers! It's basically impossible for me to get them short enough so the don't make a tapping noise on the keys.

If you look at my fingers side on, the nail bed goes almost right to the end. Other people seem to have a definate 'pad' at the tio of their finger!

Definitely violinists should not have long nails, esp on the left hand - totally messes with playing. My teacher used to complain almost every week because my nails have always grown really fast! I've had more or less short nails for almost 20 years! Even on other instruments where it's not so obvious how they get in the way, eg on the flute very long nails could help cause bad hand position.

I just had my first lesson with my new teacher and I got reminded about nail cutting. And I had just cut them! I can't get my nails very very short though, they just don't grow that way.

I always had that problem with violin lessons... plus my nails grow fast...

"When did your mother last cut your nails???!"

"Yesterday, miss."

"Oh..."

It sounds as though you've never bitten them, then! Those of us who used to bite our nails now have nail beds that finish below the tip of the fingers. (or given your problems!)

My problem nail is my left-hand thumb nail. When I first played the recoreder I bit my nails, so I got used to playing the pinched fingering notes with no thumb nail. I now have to keep that nail very short, otherwise my pinched notes suffer.

I cut mine too much the other day so now they REALLY hurt whenever i play.

well...i bite my nails so there is no need to cut!

daisy x x

Ooo, bad habit I'm afraid. I would never do that!

Car Expert

I don't like biting nails either-it just sounds weirdly random and it's annoying sometimes!!! My piano teacher makes me cut my nails though. This is random but i don't mind the sound of screeching nails on a blackboard even though it annoys most people!!

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(runs away covering ears and screams louder than the screeching)

[COLOR=blue][/COLOR][COLOR=blue]well....i'm a pianist...definitely playing on keybaord with long finger nails...not comfort at all
but i really like my friends' beutiful long finger nails with polished(dont play any music)
and every one on the steet polished their nail too..it looks fantastic!
but to play well...i have to cut my finger nail short!

My mate is a piano teacher and ges round this by using fake nails for parties and stuff and then whips them off for teaching!

I have quite the dilema.
I need somewhat long nails(just a little longer than the fingers and a long thumb nail) to play classical guitar.(Was planning on preparing for Grade 5 exam)
Then I decided to start playing piano and realize it is much better if I remove the long thumb nail and keep the others relatively short.
Although I'm at the point where piano is more my passion I feel guilty about not playing the guitar as much. And when I do pick up my guitar the thumb nail is not what it should be so my playing because mediocre(sound wise).

Why do I feel guilty......Well I paid $1,000 for my guitar and my wife is sure gonna make sure I play it !!!!!! jk


Peter

I'm referring by the way to the right hand only for fingerpicking side.

i always bit my nails too so never encountered that problem either