Level 3 - List Of Pieces (+ Discussion Space)

David Bruce Tran Dietmar Fischer Just to offer a contrarian opinion, I suggest anyone having trouble with their nails try playing without them, as I do. Unless one plays professionally, I don't really see any 'downside' to playing with flesh only. I know most guitarists view this as some kind of heresy, but plucked instruments of various sorts have been played in this manner for hundreds of years!

David Krupka I currently play without nails, but my teacher wondered if I might not benefit from short nails for reducing the effort required to develop certain techniques (perhaps tremolo, for example). I was hoping not to have to work on and preserve good nails, but perhaps if I’m serious about advancing, I might have to go there.

David I used to play with nails, but I gave them up after taking up the lute about ten years ago. I did have to adjust my right hand position and attack to play guitar in a satisfactory manner, but once I got used to this, I found I could play well enough. I should say that I also changed the kind of repertoire I focused on, from mostly modern to mostly early 19th c. - a period when many players (Sor in particular) played without nails. I have to concede I can no longer produce a decent tremolo, but I so rarely try that this may be down to a lack of practice rather than a question of nails. (There is a famous piece for lute that calls for tremolo (Dowlands 'Tremolo' Fantasia) so the technique certainly existed before the advent of nails.) Also bear in mind that there are some very good modern players (Virginia Luque is probably the best known) who don't use nails. And her teacher was none other than the great Andres Segovia himself! According to Ms. Luque, not only did Segovia encourage her non-use of nails, he actually was quite knowledgeable about the approach, which presumably had still been reasonably common in his youth. Personally, I think the current prevailing wisdom concerning nails is the reflection of a modern idea, namely that there should be a single, uniform ('best') approach to playing the guitar (or any instrument, for that matter). I don't see that this is necessarily a good thing.

David Krupka Your response is such a relief to read since I struggle to grow, much less keep undamaged, a decent RH set of nails. Funny thing is that I'm signed up for the flamenco intro course on TB. Should be interesting to see how that goes sans nails!

David I've also wondered whether nails are 'needed' for Flamenco. I gather they're the norm today, but I wouldn't be surprised if things were different in the past. I'd love to hear what you discover in the course!

David Krupka Thanks.