Quote from: Kaylee on September 22, 2013, 04:01:53 AM
So I love to play music, I play bass, acoustic guitar and ukulele to a fairly decent level and before coming out to people used to love nothing more than sitting in a park/field/garden/kitchen and making some tunes, and there's nothing like the feeling of getting of stage and being told how awesome you just were!

However, since I started getting more seriously into getting my transition underway I haven't been in the mood.  Also I decided to try growing my nails out and seeing how they look/feel, turns out I love having pretty nails, and they're great for scratching the cat with!

Now my heads in a better space I really want to get back onto playing regularly, I've tried a few times recently but the nails make it near enough impossible to properly fret an instrument.

I've contemplated just having my right hand longer, but don't think that'll help due to my playing style (cue random demo vid, thats me in the Spidey hoody)



As you can see I like to use my right hand to get a percussive beat going, and doing jingly finger picking.  Plus I'd feel a bit daft with nice nails only on 1 hand.  I can probably bear to trim everything down a bit, but I'd still end up damaging nails every time I played. 

Does any one have any tips for keeping nails in good condition while abusing them on a daily basis?

(Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I couldn't think where else this would fit!)

Like the track

I just make sure that I trim/cut the cuticle down and let the nails grow out a little but not so much that they go over the tip. This gives me a lot of nail area so it looks really nice but not really anything that goes onto the string. I've got a very similar style to your play and pretty much just do acoustic finger picking and I don't have too much of a problem. I do have to do near constant maintenance though. I have to remove the polish and then reapply the whole thing every week at the latest or they'll get too long. That said, I tend to use the blues grip so my fingers aren't necessarily straight down on the frets. My guitar has pretty severe tension so you might be able to get away with more because of a better guitar's lighter tension.

I have been playing guitar on stage for forty years, and with long nails for about eight years now. It takes a lot of practice, adjusting your style, and some guitar and strap mods.
My nails are gel, about 1/8 inch past my finger tips. I ask my nail lady for 'sporty round', and she knows the length. In order to play consistently well, you nails MUST stay exactly the same length all the time. You'll never figure it out if you let them grow for ten days, then trim them back.
Raise you guitar strap. Don't reach around the guitar neck no matter how cool it looks. You should be approaching it with a relatively straight wrist, from below.
When bending a note, don't try to push the strings above it out of the way, let them slide over your nail. This will wreak havoc on the polish, and takes some practice. If you're playing really fast, or long runs, tilt your whole hand so you nails point a little more parallel to the strings.
I play really fast country, with a bend on almost every note, or some times bending two strings at once, by different intervals too! I use a Fender telecaster with a B-bender. By simply pushing down on the neck, the B string raises a full step, allowing my fingers to bend another note simultainiously.
If you get serious about it, have a good luthier install some taller frets. I like Dunlopp 6105. This is a 3-5 hundred dollar job. They are much easier to play with nails, but require a light touch to stay in tune.

By second set my nail polish is toast. Get your pictures taken before it looks like a beaver has been chewing at your manicure.

This is pretty advanced, but I hope it helps a bit.

If I play guitar in a music store, or some place the audience is right up close, people don't ask how a girl can play like Brad Paisley (or similar, he's god), they ask how I can play with nails.

i've been a girl most of my life, and in high school both the violin teacher, piano teacher, and guitar teacher had the very same message "keep your nails short" (yes, on the piano too, because it's impossible to hit the keys right with long nails, and that makes it impossible to practice for longer periods of time and get really good at it, unless you want to damage your hands, of course). cis people who are serious about music do that, because the music is more important than pretty nails. i have seen a woman play the guitar with long red nails too, but she didn't play anything awesome.

Quote from: Taka on September 27, 2013, 10:10:23 AM
i've been a girl most of my life, and in high school both the violin teacher, piano teacher, and guitar teacher had the very same message "keep your nails short" (yes, on the piano too, because it's impossible to hit the keys right with long nails, and that makes it impossible to practice for longer periods of time and get really good at it, unless you want to damage your hands, of course). cis people who are serious about music do that, because the music is more important than pretty nails. i have seen a woman play the guitar with long red nails too, but she didn't play anything awesome.

That's a pretty big generalization. How many records did your violin teacher sell? That's like telling someone with one arm they can't play basketball. We deal with it. Sure, short nails are easier, but willpower is amazing. By the way, Dolly Parton plays with long nails, and as a guitarist, and banjo picker, she IS awesome. I play with nails, and I sold my fair share of records.

Quote from: Paulagirl on September 27, 2013, 11:17:02 AM
That's a pretty big generalization. How many records did your violin teacher sell? That's like telling someone with one arm they can't play basketball. We deal with it. Sure, short nails are easier, but willpower is amazing. By the way, Dolly Parton plays with long nails, and as a guitarist, and banjo picker, she IS awesome. I play with nails, and I sold my fair share of records.

guitars are an interesting exception. how well you can do it with nails probably depends on what sound you want to make? i've seen many with long nails on only one hand. should probably have mentioned that.

but when it comes to the violin, i haven't met a single teacher who'd let me have long nails. norwegian or bulgarian or dutch or serbian didn't matter at all. i don't think i've known any seriously good violinist with long nails either. there are some types of music that could be played with long nails, but classical music will soon become impossible to play right without cutting your nails.

this shows how pretty female musicians can be without ridiculously long lacquered nails:


actually, i can't really remember seeing many long nails in classical music. they don't necessarily sell many record, but i don't really see that as a measure of talent.

Right now I have the nails on my fretting hand about 1/16th of an inch long and I have grown them out to 1/8-3/16ths in the past without them being a problem when I play my guitar. I do play more on the finger print part of the finger than the actual finger tip though and that could be the difference.

Quote from: Paulagirl on September 27, 2013, 11:17:02 AM
That's a pretty big generalization. How many records did your violin teacher sell? That's like telling someone with one arm they can't play basketball. We deal with it. Sure, short nails are easier, but willpower is amazing. By the way, Dolly Parton plays with long nails, and as a guitarist, and banjo picker, she IS awesome. I play with nails, and I sold my fair share of records.

There's a difference between selling records and being a virtuoso on an instrument, whom often don't sell a lot of records. Britney Spears sold an awful lot of records, and her talent is marginal at best. Being a good musician has little to do with popularity.

I've been playing for about 43 years. I play guitar, bass, keyboards and sing, and used to play drums and sax, and a few other instruments (Don't have time for those anymore!) Whereas I mostly play original alternative rock (guitar) and in a classic rock cover band (bass), I used to play a lot of progressive rock and jazz fusion back in the 70s. Very technically demanding music. Yes, I was a male all that time, but still, you can't play blisteringly fast with nails in the way.

Dolly is an entertainer, but she's not a virtuoso.

Quote from: Taka on September 30, 2013, 02:53:23 PM
guitars are an interesting exception. how well you can do it with nails probably depends on what sound you want to make? i've seen many with long nails on only one hand. should probably have mentioned that.

Not on the fretting hand, unless you are just strumming chords. The way you place your fingertip on the string, the ball of the finger is often perpendicular to the fretboard. If your nail extends past the fingertip, it will hit the wood before your finger does.

Some players, both male and female grow their picking hand nails a little longer. Many bass players do this to get the sound of a pick. I don't because I use a pick sometimes, and my fingers other times.

Here's a very pretty girl, Orianthi with very short polished nails, playing her butt off! I think the short nails are sexy on women. I never liked long nails. Notice that Steve Vai's nails are just as short. All the female musicians I play with have short nails.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7b-_YcACuQ&feature=share&list=TLq7PWeMn9hdgXLydK5n_4fGIIiqpXIplN

Quote from: RavenMoon on September 30, 2013, 11:01:16 PM
Not on the fretting hand, unless you are just strumming chords. The way you place your fingertip on the string, the ball of the finger is often perpendicular to the fretboard. If your nail extends past the fingertip, it will hit the wood before your finger does.

Some players, both male and female grow their picking hand nails a little longer. Many bass players do this to get the sound of a pick. I don't because I use a pick sometimes, and my fingers other times.

Here's a very pretty girl, Orianthi with very short polished nails, playing her butt off! I think the short nails are sexy on women. I never liked long nails. Notice that Steve Vai's nails are just as short. All the female musicians I play with have short nails.

yeah, i was thinking more of the possibility to grow longer nails on one hand. and how good you're planning on becoming at it. i have to cut my nails just to play a single chord (not that i'm good with guitars) because i'm used to playing the violin. nails get in my way.

nice to know there are other people who don't like long nails. i especially don't want them near any sensitive area on my body.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's nails were rediculous, and he still played crazy.



5:30 is the part that shows what I'm talking about

Quote from: Taka on October 01, 2013, 01:13:14 AMnice to know there are other people who don't like long nails. i especially don't want them near any sensitive area on my body.

I also like flats better than heels.

Quote from: WFane on October 03, 2013, 09:47:26 PM
Stevie Ray Vaughan's nails were rediculous, and he still played crazy.



5:30 is the part that shows what I'm talking about

Well see he has his thumb up over the neck, therefore he's not using his fingertips, but more with his fingers on an angle.
He was an excellent player for the style of music he did. But with technique like that there's a lot of things he would not be able to play well. He didn't do much linear playing.

But even with a thumb partly over the neck, SRV couldn't do half of what the late great Shawn Lane could do (and notice when the thumb has to move behind the neck):



(much shorter nails)

And guess which one sold more records? (it wasn't Lane)

I play bass (a lot of heavy metal and rock) and frequently end up with what I call "guitar nails" which is what happens when you only trim the nails you play with the most and forget to trim the rest so you get wonky looking nails. (Like only trimming the right hand's thumb, index and middle and letting the others grow. )

Quote from: Frank on October 04, 2013, 12:33:34 AM
I play bass (a lot of heavy metal and rock) and frequently end up with what I call "guitar nails" which is what happens when you only trim the nails you play with the most and forget to trim the rest so you get wonky looking nails. (Like only trimming the right hand's thumb, index and middle and letting the others grow. )

I can't stand how it feels if my nails grow long enough so that they touch things! it's a pet peeve of mine, probably from cutting them short for so long.

I play bass and guitar. I've mainly been a bassist over the years, but I started on guitar.

This was a video I stuck up in 2009. (I was quite over weight here, so pay no mind to that chin!) It's also slightly out of synch.

This is my favorite type of music to play (70s prog rock)

Quote from: RavenMoon on October 04, 2013, 12:23:22 AM
I also like flats better than heels.

awesomesauce!
i'm glad there are some practical beings in this world. i find practical better looking than impractical just for the sake of vanity.

Quote from: Taka on October 07, 2013, 04:27:50 PM
awesomesauce!
i'm glad there are some practical beings in this world. i find practical better looking than impractical just for the sake of vanity.

I just think it's better looking. Nothing is sexier to me than tights with flats. Even some Converse Chuck Taylors. lol

I may be atypical, but that's OK.

Quote from: RavenMoon on October 04, 2013, 12:31:44 AM
Well see he has his thumb up over the neck, therefore he's not using his fingertips, but more with his fingers on an angle.
He was an excellent player for the style of music he did. But with technique like that there's a lot of things he would not be able to play well. He didn't do much linear playing.

But even with a thumb partly over the neck, SRV couldn't do half of what the late great Shawn Lane could do (and notice when the thumb has to move behind the neck):



(much shorter nails)

And guess which one sold more records? (it wasn't Lane)

That's a great point! SRV was a great guitar player in terms of feel and passion, but he can't match a virtuoso.  At the end of the day, if you hope to get great technique, you will be limited by keeping long nails on the fret hand.  Sure, you can get some good mileage out of it, but only to a point.

I stand by my previous comment of long nails plus guitar = no.

Most if not all female guitarists have short nails. Even long nails on the pick hand get in the way sometimes. If you look at SRV's nails, they are by no means long. They worked well for him because the style of his playing and the tone required the use of heavy gauge strings (thinnest gauge string was something like a 13 gauge if I recall) and the distance from the fretboard is greater than normal to accommodate this. Nails to the top of the finger allow more comfortable pressure at the fingertip. However, they are not long nails. Virtuosity, in the case of Shawn Lane et al, on an electric guitar almost always dictates the use of small gauge strings to get as close to the fretboard as possible.  No long nails here either.

If playing the guitar is more important than having long nails, then cut your nails or learn bottleneck. Simples. 

Just came across this thread coincidentally as I'm contemplating what to do here long term.

I have been growing out my nails for the first time ever and now I've run into difficulties doing my favorite things- playing guitar and bass.

Finally having my nails long and pretty is such a wonderful feeling.   I just had a manicure and a purple gel polish done, but now I'm having problems playing guitar with them and I'm afraid I'm going to break one now or gouge my fingerboards.  As much as I want to shred, there are guitars that I have now that I'm afraid to touch because I don't want to damage them.  The only one I feel comfortable playing right now is one I partially scalloped many years ago.  It's already pretty worn, so I don't fear any further damage, but now I feel like I just have a bunch of expensive wall hangers.  And yes, I'm not much of a slide player.

I also just put a fretless bass together and now I can't play it at all.  As much as I want to play it, I really don't want to cut my nails.

This is a brand new problem for me and it's sort of wrecking my day.  I really wanted to crank the Marshall today while my wife is away.  The clippers are laughing me in the face right now but I can't bear to use them.