Every once in a while I go back and practice some classical stuff on my cheap Nylon string, but I never stay consistent enough with it for my fingerpicking to really develop. But I also keep my nails short by choice. Is it possible to play fingerpicking well on a nylon without having longer nails? I know it definitely helps because I did grow my nails to a decent length one time and it was much easier, but I end up just cutting them because I just dont like it haha. But am I going in circles trying to improve my fingerpicking without some nail length?
Sure! It just isnāt widely accepted these days in classical circles. Ironically, yesterday I had the YouTube algorithms suggest this to me:
I didnāt watch the whole thing, because after hearing what he sounded like with no nails AND seeing how much he had to alter his technique to get what I considered an inferior (totally subjective on my end, NOT saying itās bad), I didnāt need to go any further with my viewing 
It may be just what youāre looking for though, check it out!!!
I may be misinterpreting what you mean by āeasierā, but from my fairly extensive classical experience, nails make playing MUCH harder. To get a consistent tone, each finger has to catch the string at just the right intersection of flesh/nail. The margin of error is huge because of this! And worse, nail maintenance is tedious. When the time comes to file them a little shorter, if you mess up on the length or shape, it can throw your playing off since the release (and sound) will be different from what youāre accustomed.
Also, we all have different goals and come from a different perspective. I was taught technique and tone production from the man who would go on to become the chair of Peabody Conservatoryās guitar department. I was seriously considering becoming a professional classical guitarist so he taught me in what is considered āThe Wayā (dogmatic as some aspects of it are). When I hear people refer to āfingerpickingā I think Dust In The Wind and along those lines. To me, a different world than classical guitar. Not sure if you just want to play random stuff, picking with the fingers on a nylon string to have more of āclassicalā sound, or if you want to full on Barrios piece mastery. That really matters as to what your approach with nails should be.
All that is to say, if you arenāt seriously planning on doing the proper classical technique and you wonāt be giving recitals in an un-micād setting, Iād forego the nails. I wish I wasnāt too stubborn to take my own advice. I just cannot stand the sound of a classical guitar without the nails adding some high partials to the sound lol! Plus, as I mentioned, I spent all those years on the technique with nails. The thought of learning something brand new makes me a want to have a panic attack.
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My goals for classical are simple; to just be able to pick up the nylon string and play pieces that I learn or make my own arrangements. I really just want to be fluent with using my right hand fingers to play whatever, but I greatly enjoy playing on Nylon and like learning some classical pieces from time to time to develop my music theory and song base. Wonāt be playing any pro classical gigs in the future haha, maybe some weddings one day but thatās it. Iād like to be able to sit down with a nylon and entertain people thatās for sure. But itās just been hard for me to develop fluidity amongst my right hand fingers and Ive been told that some nail length makes that easier because it helps with attacking the string better. Definitely going to watch that video though. Basically I just need to hear/know that I can develop strong right hand āfinger pickingā technique for the nylon string without ever having nails. And for the record, that does not mean I need to be able to control all the tone and acoustics of my playing, at least not now hahah
Gotcha, yeah youāre solid with no nails Iād say. There are plenty of great finger style players that donāt use nails. You could apply this to some āpseudoā classical playing for sure.
My one takeaway from the video that I didnāt watch all the and recommended to you (lol) is that the guy is not ignorant and heās definitely had āproperā training. He goes into detail about how until Segovia, plenty of classical guitarists didnāt use nails.
For your goals, Iād go nail free. If this guy thinks heās cracked it, and he seems to be happy with the sound, Iād just say play close attention to the technique heās using. The fact that he was letting his tip join collapse could be a key to it all. That was where for me, I was like āNah eff this, I spent countless hours making sure that tip joint stayed stableā hahahaha
Best of luck!!!
Cool video thanks for sharing. Might even seem like itās more beneficial for me to just start learning without nails so I fully develop my technique that way. Any videos you can share on how to properly practice with my right hand for classical? Itās been over a year since Iāve had a lesson on this and actually practiced it so I only semi-remember; I just know my fingers never really got fluid with the movements.
Nice tone here - I believe not playing with nails but I could be wrong:
I canāt tell from any of the shots if he has fingernails or not. I can definitely see a little thumb nail. I like the sound heās getting. It is mellow, but thereās clarity and a decent amount of projection. Itās definitely good enough that Iād say if playing that sounds like this is possible with no nails, I have no problem eating every single word Iāve said/written about needing nails to play authentic classical guitar.
Though, listening to this as Iām typing, there are parts where the tone brightens up so much that I feel like he has to have nails. Maybe very short nails? And heās not always using them? Thatās sort of like what the guy in the video I posted was saying. He kept filing his nails shorter and shorter and suddenly realized he was hardly using them.
Needs further investigation Iām not familiar with this guy at all. Heās great though.
EDIT: Heās definitely got a pinky nail:
and heās got an index finger nail:
I have to conclude Iām hearing nails too, at least in places, as per my initial reaction during parts of significant timbre changes.
@JakeEstner as I mentioned I donāt know anything about this guy. Is he known for playing without nails or something?
Iāll have a look around for you. The way I was taught, it was very much something that I needed continual guidance on from my teacher. I just wasnāt getting it at first. Specific angles of the elbow, wrist, every joint in my finger, the contact points. Itās insanity. So I needed feedback, not just seeing it done a certain way and imitating, since apparently I suck at that. Iām pretty dense though. Also, itās possible the technique/instruction was so rigorous because of the nails being involved. Iād say as a starting point, if you like the way the guy in the video I posted sounds, use his recommendation for tone production.
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Your guess, on all of those things, is as good as mine, well, probably better as I really donāt have a ton of CG exposure.
So thereās this thread, which I didnāt read all of, where I think they try to suss that out. From a skim, seems maybe some conflicting accounts: https://www.classicalguitardelcamp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1052513#p1052513
@carranoj25 the delcamp forum is pretty mammoth and I guess I donāt have the authority on the subject to say whether it is āgoodā but Iāve browsed for some good discussion and interesting info:
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Thanks. That link comes up early in the google search results lol! Iād already skimmed it before watching his video and had the same feeling coming away with it. Some say he plays with nails, others seemed surprised at the notion. Thatās why I was wondering if you were aware of some general assumption that the guy plays sans nails or something.
I am out of the loop in the current classical guitar community. I was heavily into from about 2000 until 2010. At this point, for the video in question Iād classify my āguessā as a pretty well educated guess. I think I hear nails in places. His tone, overall, is mellow. But plenty of players with nails have a mellow tone. Particularly if they have short nails and/or play cedar top instruments, which tend to have a darker sound in general. String choice matters a ton too. I see, without question, nails on his thumb, index and pinky fingers. The pinky doesnāt matter, most classical guitarists donāt even use it. The notion that someone (with the training this guy obviously has) would not have nails on his middle and ring fingers when obviously having them on the other 3 digits seems a little absurd to me 
So Iām fairly certain in the video he is using nails.
I did find this though, and I think this is a good sound the guy gets. No nails:
So, again, I have no problem at this point saying someone can get a good sound without nails. I would have never considered it untilā¦just now lol The times Iāve picked up my own instrument and attempted playing it without nails, I hated the sound so much that I put it away immediately lol! Iām most likely not playing it the way required with no nails. In fact, it has to be that. Without even thinking about it, when I play a single note on the classical guitar, I make contact at a very specific part of my finger. Itās right were the nail meets the flesh and that never varies. Genetically speaking, my nail body comes up very far on my finger - right to the tip. So when I have ānoā nails, Iāve still got a little bit of nail that goes past my finger tip. Anything shorter would cause bleeding lol! I bet when I play with ānoā nails, Iām catching the short, rough part of whatās left of my nail on the string and itās causing a scratching sound. Thatās probably why I hate it so much. The guy who successfully got a good tone with (truly) no nails is using only flesh.
For me at this point, the only question that remains is if playing with no nails would give the projection needed in a small venue, un micād. That was my entire understanding (as it was taught to me) of why classical guitarists play with nails (and their technique in general). However, if weāre only playing classical for a hobby (I am), Iād now class nails as a non-requirementā¦except for me personally due to genetics haha!
So take that internet, democrats, and republicans (and everyone really). Thereās nothing wrong with admitting a strong opinion you have/had isnāt totally correct. I have zero problems owning that Iām wrong and learning from it. You can, in fact, get a nice sound on the classical guitar with no nails.
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Classical guitar form is definitely hard to mirror from just watching a video thatās for damn sure
Iāve long held the belief that itās essential to be open minded, and I will not tolerate anybody trying to convince me otherwise.
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Agreed. I will never again make an absolute statement. Always shall I keep an open mind.
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Great. While I have your attention, Iād like to PM you about some political opinions that are the opposite of the ones you currently hold. Similarly, I donāt know how you feel about carbs, astrology, or tube amps, but if I could have just a moment of your timeā¦
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@JakeEstner lol! I think learning decent classical tone is possible without nails is enough of having my mind blown for one week. Maybe next week we can talk about that other stuff. To make it fun we should include religion. We can also flip a coin and take opposite sides of your choice of these other ācontroversialā topics:
- Climate Change
- Flat Earth Theory
@carranoj25 I still havenāt found a nice classical guitar resource for you. I wonāt forget. High level though, you just need some arpeggio technique and left hand finger independence. If youāre just dipping your toes in that should get you 98% of the way there. I know both of those topics are covered pretty extensively in Scott Tennantās āPumping Nylonā book. Iāll see if I can find a youtube series of some fundamentals.
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Awesome thanks for
Keeping me in mind! One of my old coworkers went to school for classical guitar so I might head over to his house and have him show me the deal one night this week or next. Feel like thatād be the best way. Although heās pretty set on needing some nail so Iām just gonna make it clear that Iām not looking to do the whole nylon song and dance; just need to make sure I accurately know how to pluck with my fingers and then Iāll
Be clever in making it sound good haha
I guess thatās getting back to my original point (one of them, as I always have several, of varying importance lol). I think the technique of playing with no nails is different. I could give someone expert level advice on how to get a good sound out of the classical guitar, if they used nails (and filed/buffed them just so). I have no clue on how to advise you on all the technical aspects of getting a good tone without nails. I expect the angles would be different as would the contact points. The main motion should stay the same. Itās always going to be the MCP joint that drives the movement. Where Iām fuzzy is the tip joint. The Brandon Acker video I posted indicated it needed to collapse when playing without nails. Thatās completely the opposite of how I was trained. I remember working so hard in the beginning to eliminate tip joint collapse. So much so that I donāt even think I could purposefully play that way. There may be other subtle differences beyond that.
One piece of advice I can give that I think will go a long way is to get used to the sound of a well played rest stroke. Whatever angles/positions you arrive at, it must sound good and rest strokes inherently sound better than free strokes. By that I mean with less effort. With the best technique you can get free strokes to sound so close to a rest stroke that only a small percentage of snobs will be able to hear the difference. Since it is so easy to get a good sound out of a rest stroke, even without nails, if you start there and try your best to imitate that sound with a free stroke Iām sure youāll get good results. I mean, who doesnāt want better tone? Even if youāre just approaching this from very much a hobbyist perspective youāre still going to want to maximize the sound you get from your instrument. I think that quest of the rest stroke as the benchmark will put you in the right direction.
You can have a great sound without extremely long nails. I was in the same boat as you (I used to leave my nails long and shape them with a ramp, like Zoran Dukic). Long story short I got so tired of not being able to do anything else with my right hand than playing classical guitar that i decided to cut them off. I ended up with almost no nails and Im so happy that I took action because now I can play steel string and the nails are not in the way when chuging on the electric.
What really ease my mind was learning that Ana Vidovic goes strong agianst long nails and her sound is sooooo awesome (I might be bias because she is really close to perfection imo). Another guitarrist that plays with short nails is Paul Galbraith. So yeah, you dont need long nails to be a world class perfoming classical guitarrist lol. Of course you could also go nailess. As mention, Brandon Acker and Rob Mackillop, achieve a very good sound. However in terms of looks and practicality, short nails rock!
You know, I should really read things more carefully. This made me think twice:
I read that and thought āHey thatās not even the question, he asked if you can play without nails!ā
So then I read the initial post again and saw:
And
So itās me who didnāt totally address the question. I meanā¦I guessā¦The title of the thread just asks if nails are necessary but your unpacking of the question might indicate you want to know if the nails need to be long. Iām glad I jumped to conclusions though since the thread helped me come to the realization that itās possible to get a good (subjective) sound without any nails. That was surely news to me. If your question was more about playing it with short nails, thatās even easier to answer. As @pastomike65 pointed out there are worldclass players that have nails quite a bit shorter than the eagle talons we see on some. Iāve never myself had long nails. For me, they āclickā too much when they are long and I feel them catching on the strings. That could just be genetics/anatomy though.
I know Iāve already beaten this dead horse but @carranoj25 if youāre up for having some nails it may be a little easier to get instruction, like from the friend you mentioned that studied classical.