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Home Guitar Technique 5 Helpful Hints for Perfect Guitar Nails

5 Helpful Hints for Perfect Guitar Nails

May 7, 2015 By jeanw 3 Comments

Guitar Nails - How Long?Guitar Nails: How Long?

One of the Worship Guitar Class students asked how to get a clear sound when holding down guitar chords. I decided to make a video for everyone about guitar nails and what’s a good length for guitar fingernails. If your guitar nails are too long, it’s near impossible to get a clear clean chord.

On the hand that holds down chords, your fingernails should be very short. Only the pads of your fingers should be touching the strings. You want to come directly down on the strings so no other string is damped.

The guitar nails of the hand plucking the strings are best, in my opinion, when they are quite short. Watch the short video below for closeup shots of my favorite lengths for guitar nails. You can hear the difference when tapping your fingers on an object, like the music stand in the video. You should not hear the  nail sound on the hand that holds down strings.

 

5 Helpful Tips For Perfect Guitar Nails

In summary:

  1. Your left-hand nails should be short. When tapping them, only the pads of your fingers should touch the table, etc.
  2. Your right-hand nails are best when they are short, but slightly protruding over the finger pads. Watch the video above to see how to find the perfect length.
  3. Use a good emery board to smooth the ends of your guitar playing hand so there are no rough edges that can snag on the strings.
  4. In my opinion, the perfect length for the hand playing the strings, is when you tap on a object your fingers touch both the pad and nail.
  5. When plucking a string, it sounds richest to use the pad and nail at the same time. Especially on classical guitars, the sound is much fuller then only using your nails to play.

For step-by-step lessons:

JW Worship Guitar Class Lessons

Step-by-step guitar lessons for learning to play worship songs on your guitar. Click here to Learn More

Filed Under: Guitar Technique, Thoughts

Comments

  1. Dennis Coop says

    June 13, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    I love the praise song! I love the fingernail video! I love the slotted headstock Martin…is it a 12 fret 000? What a way to begin my day.

    Our two sons played and sang “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” at our daughter’s wedding over 16 years ago. My eyes fill as I finger pick that song til this day. Now she has three children who thrill us regularly, along with our other three grandchildren. All six of them are musicians and all love the guitar. We are both retired, but God graciously continues to provide places for us to perform and teach. God is so Good to us, and we do so little to show our appreciation. Thank you for your regular reminders, and for your ministry.

    Dennis Coop

    Reply
  2. jeanw says

    June 13, 2012 at 5:03 pm

    Denis… you are just a man filled with love! Thanks for your precious comment and how wonderful to have a family of musicians too! Blessings to you and yours, In HIM, Jean

    Reply
  3. Afonso says

    June 14, 2023 at 2:03 pm

    Found this is 2023! Still relevant, of course, as guitars are still the same.

    I should say that the effect of having long nails on your left hand is even more noticeable in an electric guitar, as the spacing between the strings is smaller. Soloing is almost impossible with long nails, especially at high speeds.

    Anyway, thanks for the video!

    Reply

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