Question for guitar players

[swel304]

1) disc golf right handed (with short nails on your right hand)

2) play guitar left handed (with long nails on your left hand)

3) ???

4) profit!

It's not used much in the style of music I typically play but finger picking was one of the first things I learned on the guitar and I always have at least one finger pick song in my warmup routine so I am not terrible at it. I have tried both ways (nails, no nails) and they both have advantages. I like the sound with nails but much prefer the feel of playing with my finger tips. Also, the callous at the end of my pointer finger (rip finger, airbrush trigger finger) gets pretty horrific at times. I like to keep a nail file or piece of fine grit sand paper around to keep the callous smooth so it doesn't snag on the strings. The callous actually seems to help get a better pluck on the string as long as its nice and smooth.

[Tossin' in Memphis]

Um, you really don't NEED fingernails to be good at fingerpicking on a guitar.

I've never used my nails, I use the pads of my fingertips. I assume OP is referring to the kind of high-pitched "scraping" sound of the callous rubbing against the string.

If you're not able to fool around with the way the pad of your finger is sounding the string so that you're avoiding the sound you described, then you could always just avoid your middle finger entirely and pick with index/ring/pinky. I used to use all four fingers and thumb for finger picking until I smashed my hand (by the pinky) in a couple of spots in college. My hand hasn't been the same since, and I now use thumb/index/middle/ring.

Basically, it's a technique issue...work on plucking the string with the pad of your fingertip more than scraping the pad of the finger across the string.

This....watch guitar players like Lindsey Buckingham and Bruce Cockburn...watch them play and get ideas

[new013]

It probably has a lot to do with the angle you're coming at the string Mike. You want a larger angle almost like you're coming at it with a claw type hand movement. i pick my banjo with my fingers a lot so i can make a video later when i get time.