Avoiding the fingernail when fingerpicking

[Rockin Mike]

I've always flatpicked but lately I'm doing more and more fingerpicking. I find that when I hold my middle finger perpendicular to the strings, i.e. playing standing up with a strap and the neck perfectly level my fingers would be pointing straight down. In that position I get the best control and meter, but I often catch some of my middle fingernail on the string. This happens no matter how close I cut my fingernail. I can avoid this by angling my fingers slightly back towards the bridge, but I don't know if this is starting a bad habit.

Should I practice more with the angled fingers to improve my control and meter in that position?

Should I keep the straight down position and wait for a callus to build up and that will keep the fingernail away from the string?

Should I keep the straight down position and practice not playing so much on the tip? I find when I catch the string with the fleshy part it's harder to predict when the string will actually pluck, so my meter is not as tight.

Or should I be doing something else entirely?

Thanks for suggestions!

[Plays_For_Dog]

Do you normally have long fingernails and just recently began to cut them short? I have always kept my nails very short and as a result, my finger is more padded on the end and the fingernail is more recessed into the finger. I notice people who have always kept their nails a bit longer have the nail sit more on top of the finger. If you keep them really short, eventually they will recess down flush with the top of the finger and thus, no more snag.

[Rockin Mike]

That may be the whole story right there.

Do you think angling my fingers back toward the bridge is a good/neutral/bad habit?

[electracoyote]

I have really soft fingernails. If I pick wrong, using my nails too much, I end up with a big area of my nail shaved off to a straight line.

This never happens with bass playing finger style.

You need to examine your technique and particularly your attack on the strings. If you are coming in at an angle or curling your finger while you pluck, you are exposing the nail to the string. My last knuckle on my plucking fingers don't bend hardly at all, so that is a straight finger from that point down, which is all fingerprint area hitting string, no nail.

Watch yourself play and see if you can adjust.

[steelhead2]

the index finger,blew up the end of it pulling green chain lumber 33 years ago,tip is a wee bit shorter,middle finger i have found is my`go to' finger,all you can do is work on positioning the instrument where it works best for you

sometimes i like to `chicken pick' like a country guitarist with a tele,,playing like the guitar lines from the Black Keys,bass with thumb/lead with the next two,takes a TON of distortion/a great jazz bass and a 1000 watts(but it's quite enlightening really,oh!,don't forget a really good bottle of wine in the mix,you'll need to `quell the riot' from all the overdriven fuzz laden octave cheating procorat insanity if you stop playing but=you ARE playing both lead and rythym and bass@ the same time),well,,, you give some up to the drummer,,,,ok that's my dollar 28,,,,,,alright,now about that WINE!

[Slammin]

I can carve wood with my fingernails but my calluses are almost as hard. I keep my nails cut as short as I can but sometimes when they are a little long, I cannot play soft enough to where it sounds 'soft'. I have to REALLY concentrate to get a smooth non-attacking sound, even with short nails.

Enjoy your soft fingertips for as long as you can. Once your calluses turn to stone, your ONLY option is to learn finger control. I struggle with it too.

[russtolium]

I've been working on controlling the consistency of my fingerstyle sound lately and this is one of the things I'm working on solving. One thing I find that helps is making sure that your fingers are 'stroking' the string, yielding back a bit as the string is hit, as opposed to keeping your fingers absolutely rigid and just plucking it in the true sense of the word. As the finger yields it moves the nail away from the string.

Also, finding a sweet spot for where the finger and string contact each other helps. Too close to the tips and you'll hit nails (which you may still want to use occasionally if you ever use natural harmonics) and too far down on the pads can risk catching your finger on the string and decreasing your potential for speed.

[Russell L]

I play with my nails. But, I also use "rest stroke." That is, my finger rests on the next string after I pluck one. And my fingers DO NOT aim perpendicular to the bass body, but rather are more at a 45-degree angle, although they cross the strings more or less perpendicularly. If my nails were short, short they would probably not hit the strings at all. But, I think it's good to use the nail a bit. I get a distinct tone that way. If I wanna subdue the click, there's always the eq knobs.

Also, I would not angle fingers back toward the bridge, but rather toward the neck (more like playing upright bass).

[teleharmonium]

Originally Posted by Russell L

Also, I would not angle fingers back toward the bridge, but rather toward the neck (more like playing upright bass).

+1

for slow to medium tempo playing sometimes my fingers are angled so far in that direction (toward the neck/neck pickup area) that they are almost parallel to the strings with the tips pointing at the bridge. I'm contributing to that angle by holding the neck kind of high and the bass to the right of center, again only for slower stuff.

I'm an upright player first, I guess I started doing this without thinking about it, out of habit or because of the sound of playing the string with more flesh on the side of the fingers.

I do have to raise the fingers and go perpendicular in order to do fast notes with alternating or three fingers. And my fingernails are long enough for me to play guitar with the nails... what I do is basically try to overshoot the string on the downstroke, and then the plucking is happening more on the upstroke. So that's like the medium fast technique.

I do still get into trouble with the fingernails if I have to play really fast using the tips, but I almost never have the need to do that. I think I'd be OK with that technique (after some work to get used to it) if I didn't have the longer fingernails, but that's not a tradeoff I need to make.

[DeltaPhoenix]

I have long nails on only my pointer and middle finger on my right hand because if I am playing chords or needing to simulate some pick attack they work. When I am playing finger style(which is most of the time) I have no problems with my nails. I just anchor my thumb above the pickups and turn my fingers towards the neck by maybe 30 degrees.

[mpdd]

my index finger has the nail closer to the end and it's shorter than my middle finger, so i need to keep the index really short

(also if you play, work with your hands, type, or draw a lot your nails grow really quickly, so you might have to clip on a surprisingly regular basis)