Nails

02022-12-13 | Guitar, Performance

Yesterday afternoon I had to fix my nails. I was playing guitar and noticed that the acrylic shields were coming loose from two nails. I can usually feel it happen and it can also sound a little different. Of course, I don’t want the acrylic to come off while I am performing although that has happened. Sometimes the nail-shield is loose but nevertheless holding on too tight and I can’t pull it off without damaging the nail underneath. Playing at the Vogue in Vancouver, years ago, I asked the band to improvise while I dealt with a nail and went backstage. Since there was no time for a new shield to dry, I re-glued the shield that had come off. Another time I was playing at Greg Gorman’s birthday party and he told me he actually saw a nail come off and sail through the air as I was playing. For a moment he thought it was an actual nail. Oh, the horror.

I decided to combine a couple of older fingernail posts into one big nail post and added an update at the bottom:

I remember reading a blogpost many years ago where someone had asked Paco de Lucia about playing guitar. The post was taken down later, perhaps because it wasn’t an authorized interview, perhaps because of the language Paco used, not knowing it would be published. I will always remember it though because it was so true. Here is part of it – and here is the link to the full quote:

I could not live without the guitar, but at the same time this is no way of life, because it is such a difficult instrument, so ungrateful; you dedicate your whole life to it, hours and days, and suddenly you come up on stage, and that day you feel in perfect shape for playing, and still you don’t hit one single string right, and you cannot figure out why… it depends on so many things, on how long your fingernails are… I am talking about tenths of millimeters, and you ask yourself. What is going on? Where am I failing? And it could be a badly polished nail…

As a teenager I read an interview with a classical guitarist. She said that one has to file one’s nails a little bit every day. At the time I figured that the statement was hyperbole, but eventually I figured out that she was right. Nail care is the most underrated aspect of being a nylon string guitar player, whether we play classical or flamenco guitar.

In places where the humidity is high nails grow a little faster, as does hair. When playing on the East Coast I may have to file my nails every single day, but in a dry climate like New Mexico or Arizona that’s not necessary.

It amazes me how differently guitar players file their nails. There are many different ways people do the filing itself, and also many different shapes that they give their nails. Some guitarists file only in one direction, others file back and forth, some go for flat nails and others for slightly pointy ones. Mine are rounded, neither flat nor pointy. But no matter what, it’s something a guitarist has to deal with all of the time.
It is not good when one walks onto a stage, excited to perform, and then discovers that the nails grew a little too much… and suddenly one gets stuck on strings. A fraction of a millimeter is all it takes to throw the guitarist off and too long is as bad as too short…

I sometimes wonder whether one can observe how people open doors and cupboards and know immediately whether they are guitar players. As a teenager I trained myself to open everything with my left hand, so I would not chance breaking a nail. I can imagine an episode of Sherlock, the one with Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, where he says it was the guitar player because, although he is right handed, he trained himself to do things with his left hand. Therefore he could have committed the murder instead of a left-handed person.

There are two reasons to fortify one’s nails: to prevent ripping part of the nail off accidentally during the hours of the day that one doesn’t play guitar, and to enable the player to create a stronger tone. The latter is especially important when one performs with a drummer. Being able to play a little louder makes the sound engineer’s job a lot easier.

Recently I did some research into different ways to protect my nails. In the late Eighties I used a few layers of superglue. In the Nineties I added baking soda. This created a much stronger nail, but was frayed with danger. Adding too much baking soda to the superglue creates so much chemical heat that one can develop a blister underneath the nail, a terrible experience. In the late Nineties I switched to acrylic powder with superglue.

Last year I experimented with a bunch of different nail polishes. I figured that since nail polish is a billion dollar industry a lot of research must go into improving it.

I discovered that good nail polish is not actually very hard, and certainly not as hard as superglue with acrylic powder, but it is flexible. That’s how chipping is prevented, and the polish appears to self-repair. And that doesn’t work for guitar playing because it ruins the attack. The nail polish seems to absorb the guitar string rather than to bounce it back.

So now I am back to using acrylic powder and super glue. I did notice that it makes a big difference when I remove the natural oils from my nails by putting a little nail polish remover onto a cotton pad and wiping the nails before brushing on the superglue. And, because it is nice to try something new, I will start using a black acrylic powder I recently found.

Today I still use acrylic powder with Krazy Glue brand super glue. I tried other, more expensive, brands of super glue but since I didn’t notice that they made a difference I went back to Krazy Glue. Another advantage of this brand is that it can be found in any drugstore, should I need more supply while on tour. I also still use nail polish remover before I start with the glue application, because it removes any oil on the nail, evaporates quickly, and makes the glue adhere better.

I bought reusable cotton fabric pads to use with nail polish remover but they didn’t seem to work very well. Besides, the disposable pads are also made from cotton and totally can be reused. Each pad lasts at least six months for me. I put the bottle of nail polish remover and a couple of disposable cotton pads in a baggie. A second baggie contains the glue and a small container of acrylic powder. I have traveled with the same container for years, because I buy larger acrylic powder packages and then pour the powder into this small container.

I buy my files at Sally Beauty at DeVargas Mall, in Santa Fe, and have done that for decades. This is their 4-way file. I never use the coarsest part of the file but the other three are perfect for different situations. I buy at least five of these every time I’m in Santa Fe. I have tried reusable metal files but have never found anything that worked for me. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments. I also use this buffer block, which Stephen Duros turned me on to a long time ago. Perfect for the finest polishing and the final buffering.

I try to fix my nails at least a day before a concert because it takes a while for the super glue and acrylic powder mix to cure. The nail may feel hard right away but it will sound better, much better, after several hours or, ideally, overnight. Let me be more specific: when plucking strings the difference between a recently done nail and a well-cured one will be very small, since we use the underside of the nail, but when strumming or doing rasguados the difference will be much larger and obvious, because we use the top of the nail.

Here is another tip, born out of experience: take the temperature into consideration. Is the stage warmer or colder than the room in which you wait before the performance? When your hands are cold the nails will protrude more and may feel too long. When your hands are warm the flesh covers more of the nail and the nail will feel shorter. If you are in a cold room and decide that your nails are too long and file them shorter, when you go onto a stage that is warm, especially under old-fashioned non-LED lights (which put out a lot of heat!), your nails will soon be too short. We are not even talking about a millimeter… a difference of a small fraction of a millimeter can make a big difference. It forces an adjustment while performing instead of just playing.