Hi,

Today I saw a concert at a local pub of a very skilled lady guitarist, and she had extra long fingernails. She'd play it with her bare fingernails. I thought I'd leave that out there for those of you wondering.

Did she have long nails on both hands or only one?  I play fingerstyle so need long nails on the hand that plucks the strings but am having to rethink things a bit for my other hand.  If she had nails on both hands I would be interested to see how she is dealing with the problems of catching extra strings, playing a chord that needs your fingers close together and so on.  Did you catch her name?

Rosie

I'd love to watch someone shred with long nails, but I don't see it happening for me.  I either have to cut them back or play rhythm with my fingers less arched.  I have guitars I really don't want to damage by gouging the fingerboards and I don't like wrecking my manicure every time I try to get in touch with my inner EVH.  So far the only guitar I can sort of shred on with long nails is one I scalloped from the 10th fret up.

On both hands? I guess if they were straight enough and long enough you could use them as a slide.

I finger pick sometimes too so I'm guessing it was just her picking hand that had long fingernails or both but it'd be quite hard to fret down the strings and play cleanly.

A friend of mine is a professional guitar player and he has always had manicured long nails on his right hand, but never on the left.  Depending on what style he's doing he'll use his nails for finger style or classical, but when playing blues or jazz he uses a pick but still uses the other fingers on the hand to pluck chords instead of always strumming.  It's interesting to watch.

I'm mainly a bass player...and there's definitely a certain fingernail length that is too long.  The fingernails on my right hand start to make a clicky sound.  Not good.

Quote from: katiej on July 16, 2014, 09:43:31 PM
A friend of mine is a professional guitar player and he has always had manicured long nails on his right hand, but never on the left.  Depending on what style he's doing he'll use his nails for finger style or classical, but when playing blues or jazz he uses a pick but still uses the other fingers on the hand to pluck chords instead of always strumming.  It's interesting to watch.

I'm mainly a bass player...and there's definitely a certain fingernail length that is too long.  The fingernails on my right hand start to make a clicky sound.  Not good.

I don't use anything but a pick. And even if they get too long on my right hand it reaks havoc. It kind of sux 'cause I can grow really good strong fingernails but I guess we always have the fake ones for "special" occasions.