Description
Another question that comes up often is whether or not you need to have nails on your right hand in order to do finger picking. At this point in the course you've definitely seen that this is not the case, but let's address the topic of nails nonetheless.
Some people have really strong nails on their right hand and they're able to keep them in good enough shape that they can use them for finger picking. This has a bright, light and very pretty sound.
I don't have long nails on my right hand at the moment, but I think I have just enough to do a rough demonstration of how it sounds when I pick the string with what little nails I have.
How would you describe the sound? It's not better or worse than the fingers; it's just a brighter sound which I personally love, but I just can't grow the nails for it. Plus, whenever I play hard on an electric guitar with a pick, my nails take a beating, so it just never works for me.
For a while I'd go to the nail salon and get 4 acrylic nails on my right hand, which worked okay in some ways, but overall it wasn't the light sound I was looking for. It was more like having 4 really thick picks on your right hand, which as we talked about in the previous lesson can tend to sound unpleasant.
Then you have options like this, where you use a combination of your finger nail and an extension, but I personally haven't found that reliable enough to use for anything.
Another option is these metal finger picks that banjo players use. It's not common, but you will see some acoustic guitar players use these. As you can hear they have an extremely brittle sound and I'm guessing they'll also wear out your strings quite quickly.
Some people make fake nails out of ping pong balls, but I've personally never tried that. I could imagine it working though.
Instead I've embraced the sound of my fingers against the strings, and as I do it more and more I get calluses that help make it a little less dark sounding.
I've found that the best thing for both live playing and recording is the hybrid combination of my fingers on the treble strings and my pick on the bass strings. It doesn't have the light and pretty sound that I like from the natural nails, but it comes out even and every note is clearly defined.
Lesson Info
