This is more of an observation with faint hope of advice:
Been experimenting with picking rather than strumming, and liking the results.
My fretting hand I keep my nails down to the minimum
My right hand Iāve been letting the nails grow and shaping them for picking.
Gardening season is in full swing, and my picking hand, being my dominant hand, I quickly
A) packed the nails with dirt,
then
B) tore and broke the nails.
Is this an A or B state of affairs? A. āSorry but youāre gonna have to wear gloves in the garden if you want to preserve your string pickinā fingernails!ā (I havenāt yet developed weeding skills with gloves on) B. āYou can pick the string beans, but not your guitar stringsā
For now, Iām down to but one nail left, resulting in āfleshyā picking by the other fingers ā but then the strings plucked by nail sound out differently, so I think that nailās fate is sealed too.
Do you have a solution/work around that works for you?
Nails are not necessary. Sure, they brighten the sound and increase volume a little, but good technique will overcome any meaningful difference.
I play steel and nylon with the flesh of my fingers as do many people and it works fine. I do keep my right picking hand thumbnail a little long, though.
It takes a few weeks of adjustment, but totally worth it. I spent more time on nail maintenance and waiting for nails to grow back than I did playing guitar. Ant I am not a gardener nor do I particularly abuse nails.
I donāt think you necessarily need nails for finger style. I enjoy finger style and keep all my nails short. I may not get the volume I would with nails but it is loud enough, even for an open mic. If you really want the loudness you could try finger picks.
I think I like to finger pick my guitar strings. At least half the time I donāt use a guitar pick.
Iām also the garden weed puller at my house. Not a big garden though, only 258 sq ft. But it still gets a gob of weeds.
Myself, I just cut all my nails off to where thereās no white showing. Both hands. I use the fleshy part of my picking fingers to pick with. I also go back and forth with a strum here or there. For the strum I use the nail side of my freshly cut off finger nails. This yields a chiming type tone. Much different than when using the flesh to pick with.
I try to embrace the difference and use it to my advantage as to the tones Iām wanting to make.
Take a look at this LL Rogers and Gordons garden log .
(There is a lot more about it, but that is a waste of time and would be better spent on the guitar )
At the beginning of the season there a lot of work with the soil etc, now itās just pruning and watering and all too often that happens with a guitar around the neck ā¦ gardening is done with your bare hands for the best feeling ā¦ just learn to play with short nails ā¦ without nails I find what I read here a bit macabre
I play fingerstyle quite a bit and keep my nails fairly short. I then have the option of the sound of flesh or nail on string. I also think the nails sound better if short than long.
Garden or no garden - fingerpicking doesnāt need nails. I fingerpick a lot and do it all without nails, just flesh, gives a warmer sound and more variety while playing with nail gives the nail sound always, but only the nail sound. If the white gets longer than 1 mm it drives me crazy.
I actually prefer the way it sounds without the brightness nails create. Also, I have a couple of sets of finger picksā¦ theyāre usable but again, too bright to my ears.
It also facilitates fingernail cleaning (those corners are still a bit challenging though when packed with clay )
Personally, I like to be exposed to dirt: Iām of the opinion that it helps my skin biome, and I do find it easier pull weeds with fingers ungloved
Thank you all for pitching ināmuch appreciated
[[[ [ [
. for you vegetable gardening nerds:
After 50+ years of gardening different ways, Iām moving toward a new style of gardening where each year I lay down cardboard, and cover it with a couple+ inches of wood chips (free from the tree trimmers). Been doing it for three years now in a couple hundred square foot section of the gardenālove the result: thick black loam, few weeds, less watering, and done in the fall after harvest and lugging wheelbarrow loads of chips is a welcome workout. It suppresses most all of the weeds, and those that do make it through, the loam is so light (versus my normal heavy clay soil) they pull out easily, and most/all of their roots too. Plus, no tilling: just push the chips back in a row in the spring, plant, after the seedlings get established I push the chips back in. I donāt have enough chips/cardboard to do all 1000sqft, but where I am able to do it it works great for me it
increases the tilth with rich humous
** the mycorrhizae are going nutsāI see fungal filaments everywhere
** earth worms galore
eliminates soil splash transmitting soil pathogens to the foliage
suppresses most all weeds (and make it easier to pull those persistent weeds)
eliminates early summer tilling/turning over the soil
preserves moisture when rains are slight
offloads the labor of weeding in the hot summer (multiple days), to one heavy duty day in the cool fall
100% agree on the no-tilling the veg patch. Iāve dug over my plot exactly once in my life 10 years ago and my back decided that is just nuts. I am now collecting garden waste from my neighbours (grass clippings, hedge cuttings and all the leaves in autumn) and compost it all up and spread when ready. Soil is chocolate cake.
Yes your fretting hand should be very short on nails. I cut mine just past the whites exposing my fleshy finger tips which callous up. And thatās good! Ask Nancy Wilson!
I am not a finger picker stylist. I strum but add arpeggio to enhance.
Now for your other handā¦James Taylor grows his nails long for getting at just the right notes. Singular plucks!
I say do as best as you are.
I say send me some gardening knowledge; I need that. All about it and more if youād like.
Love _R
Not a finger picker as such, but I remember telling my wife some time ago, I would no longer be available to cut the Sunday roast: to avoid any finger āmishapsā with the blade.
"Anyone would think you were a surgeon, or something! ", she bit back.
Wow, lotās of fingerpickers here prefer the no-nails sound. Iām the opposite, after years of playing without nails, I grew my right hand (except the pinky) nails out a bit to add volume to my fingerpicking.
I play almost exclusively acoustic blues and folk (and by āfolkā, I mean John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotten, not James Taylor and Leonard Cohen). Most of the traditional players of this genre use fingerpicks or long nails and to me, it just feels right. If I donāt have any nails, everything I play sounds like āYesterdayā, lol.
I donāt love doing the nail maintenance, but to be honest it only takes about 10 minutes, once a week. I donāt garden, so thatās not an issue for me.
Uhh that was where the topic starts with āany gardenersā ā¦for the not gardenless (or I donāt do balcony flower box crafters either) there are several topics full of with or without nailsā¦
I would like to add for fun that if you are going to do coarse/brutal pruning work or chimney tiles and so onā¦ of course wear gloves, protect those precious fingers for the best hobby there isā¦ but feel the earth with your fingers for the rest
)
).
ā¦ gardening is done with your bare hands for the best feeling 
ā¦ just learn to play with short nails 
