Fake Fingernails For Guitar Players

Technique Technique: Fingerstyle
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View the full lesson at Fake Fingernails For Guitar Players | JustinGuitar

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As a picker and former co-owner of a chain of nail salons, I too have seen pickers get fake nails for picking. Iā€™ve never been able to grow my nails long enough to use, and instead play finger style using the pad of my fingers, and also recently developed my thumb pick skills to where I can use that just about as well as finger style.

I didnā€™t know James Taylor used fake nails - thanks. And Iā€™m surprised with Justinā€™s comment that half of finger style players use fake nails. That seems higher than I expected. I do well without them, but Iā€™ve learned to use a thumb pick, when my thumb got sore from too much picking.

Just_Dan

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My daughter loves to do my nails. Yes I get the ā€œweird looksā€ from people. But I love my daughter and am learning to embrace my glameā€“rockhood. I canā€™t wait for her to see this video.

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Welcome to the forum Kevin, nice to see you and your daughter can spend bonding time together, just make sure she does the fake nails properly.

My wife used to work in a full sevice salon and has told me horror stories of people doing their own fake nails and getting a fungus between the fake nail and the natural nail. If this is not caught in time it can distroy the nail bed and do permanent damage.

Everything will be fine as long as they are applied properly.

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ā€˜Chick???ā€™ REALLY???

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Huh? :man_shrugging:

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At 0:49 Justin says a ā€œchickā€ normally does his nails. Apparently thatā€™s offensive to some people. :roll_eyes:

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I thought I would have my say on this.
When I started to play finger style I tried just using the pads of my fingers it didnā€™t work for me, I just couldnā€™t get enough volume. So I decided to grow them rather than stick on nails. They are a little bit longer than before I started finger style but not much. I think if a casual observer looking at my right hand only they wouldnā€™t say they looked particularly long. I wonder how much comes down to technique. I do spend time looking after them, keeping them about the same length which means at least once a week. A lot of advice on this from classic guitar players in particular there shape of which there some options.
Michael