I have many memories of my first attemps to play the guitar. Like many boys I had many interests like reading, playing piano, singing, listening to music, athletics, chess, stamp collecting, painting and other things at different times. Playing guitar was just one of them.
I remember that I had my own way of practicing guitar playing. I always had my guitar on my bed waiting for me. I sat down on my bed many times everyday playing for a while and then starting to do other things.
Sometimes I felt inspired to play guitar for an hour or two and other times just for a minute. Did I have goals or not?
I know that I was developing as a guitarist quite fast and I think it must have been something in my way of playing and practicing guitar that was good.
I believe that some of the reasons for my progress during those early days of my learn to play guitar career were:
1. I felt no pressure to become an accomplished guitarist. I just felt the joy of sitting down with my guitar trying to find out the treasuries in the land of music.
2. My father was a guitar teacher giving me lessons at times and I always heard him play guitar in our home. Other guitarists visited our home many times and these visits inspired me a lot.
3. I never felt a pressure to play fast and thereby building tensions by playing too fast. This is one of the big mistakes beginning guitarist and even accomplished guitarists sometimes make.
4. As I mentioned previously I did a lot of other things besides playing guitar and I guess all these things I was involved in kept my mind quite healthy and helped me retain my joy when I learned to play guitar.
I guess in a sense I had goals that was not so apparent to me that directed me towards somewhere even if I was quite content being on the road of progress towards guitar land.
Can you learn something from my early guitar experiences? At least you can learn the following:
1. When learning to play guitar always remember to enjoy the act of playing without thinking too much on what you can or cannot do as a guitarist.
2. Try to associate with good musicians and guitarists that inspire you to play musically and that give you the motivation to learn to play new things on your guitar.
3. Beware of playing too fast on your guitar. There is a risk of building up muscle tensions and thereby actually reducing your ability to play fast. A remedy for this and a way to tame yourself is to use a metronome at a low tempo to reduce your speed to a level where you can play your guitar in a relaxed manner.
4. To become an interesting guitarist and musician you might benefit from being involved in other activities like listening to good music, having another hobby, reading good books, assiciate with other people and more.
Do you have to have goals to become a good guitarist? Well, even if you don't have learn to play guitar goals in the ordinary sense you can help yourself to play everyday by having easy access to your guitar.
I had my guitar on my bed. Maybe you want to have your guitar in your favorite armchair. I guess you understand the principle....
Sharon Isbin in her Classical Guitar Answer Book wrote...
"Classical guitarists can play without nails, but they should be aware that in doing so they are sacrificing certain possibilities of tone color and projection - all of which affect interpretation and musical presentation."
I have played classical guitar and also improvisational jazz and blues guitar for many years and have been teaching others professionally. I have played with long nails, shorter nails and no nails at all.
I have seen guitar students struggling with their tone on the guitar. Guitarists with problem nails, guitarists not taking care of their nails and subsequently with a terrible tone and some guitarists with perfect nails and still not a good tone because of faltering technique.
I have also met guitarists that were playing without nails and I have seen electric guitarists finger playing without nails like Mark Knopfler and others.
As with nearly everything there are pros and cons with the different approaches. I like playing without nails for these reasons:
1. It's a challenge to find the tone and get the most out of the guitar playing without nails. You have to play with more force to find the upper harmonics and you have to work even more with the guitar technique. No sloppiness is allowed!
2. I like the sweet sound of my fingers touching the strings. The sound created is mellow but the volume will still be satisfying if you play with force and with calousses developed by practising.
3. There is a special feeling involved in letting living flesh touch the strings on a guitar. You will come nearer the instrument somehow.
4. Of course you'll have the advantage of not risking to have your nails broken as you don't depend on them anymore.
5. You will be able to play piano with correct finger posture.
6. You can play electric guitar with your fingers without risking to destroy your nails.
I will now give you some of my own advice and experiences from playing without nails.
You might find some more information on the net as there are many other classical guitarists and lute players who want to play without nails. Here are my personal hints:
1. It will take a week or so to build callouses on your fingertips after having filed down your nails. This will improve your guitar playing and tone but until then you have to be careful not to play so intensely as to get blisters.
2. A way to build callouses is to play finger picking on electric guitar or steel string guitar. I have experienced that my blues guitar playing is much more musical and more dynamic as I play with my fingers instead of with a pick on my electric guitar. Sometimes I use to alternate between my thumb and index finger when playing scales and licks and other times my index finger and middle finger or in another classical guitar playing way.
3. You will get a softer and in many ways a more beautiful tone if you cultivate your playing without nails. However you might miss some of the higher frequencies. To compensate for this you can see to it that you always play with fresh new strings and if you are a rich man you might purchase a classical guitar with more treble and less bass.
4. When you use your nail sharpener (you should instead of just clipping the nails off!) to keep your nails short you might as well give your fingertips some grooming with the nail sharpener. This will improve your tone and stimulate your finger tips to become harder.
5. As you practice exercises on your guitar you need to play slowly and with a little more force to get a good tone. It is important that you don't build tensions as you play. All musicians benefit from learning relaxation techniques and stretching to prevent injuries.
6. Practice especially playing apoyando (support strokes) with all your fingers and listen to the tone and try to improve it as part of your playing.
If you feel that playing completely without nails is to hard for you, you might after this test period let them grow but you can keep them a lot shorter as your technique has improved. They will then work as the claws of a cat. Mostly not used but still affecting your tone and supporting your playing. As with long nails you will have to polish them and take care of them.
There are many more things to say about playing guitar without nails but personally this technique gives me a tone I like and an exciting and rewarding challenge.
Peter Edvinsson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Programming and Guide Guitar. Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your and learn to play guitar resources at. Peter Edvinsson's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.