Hi guys I'm back after a while, lots changed in my life and now I'm back in the practice room.
I have a question for you guys.
I am practicing "flying in a blue dream " by satriani and when I get to the tapping part I noticed my finger nails getting in the way of getting a clear sound..
How do you guys do with nails and tapping?
Cheers .

I keep my nails as short as possible! They even get in the way of holding the pick comfortably if they're too long. As far as tapping goes, the angle you're coming in for the tap sounds like it may be too close to the nail. Are you able to get closer to the pad of the fingertips (without actually using the pad) without your nail getting in the way?

I wish my nails were longer so I could do proper rest strokes on my electric while holding a pick! There are a lot of classical guys I know who all say that everything down to the tone is better when using fingernails rather than flesh.

But I guess it comes down to wheither or not you belong to the school of Segovia or school of Tarrega.

I like to strike down rather straight from above with the tip of my finger. Like with the part of the finger that hits with the fretting hand, as shown in Pebber's vids. When using multiple fingers on the tapping hand, it'll angle slightly towards the fingerpad depending on how far of a stretch is necessary, but the tip is definitely bonier and more distinct sounding than the pad. I like the feeling of the bone hitting the fretboard.

That said, when trimmed comfortably short, I do have some meat between my nail and tip, like 1/4 inch. When they grow, it's the "white part" that's soft that goes into that 1/4 inch space. I had to do some atonal tapping junk some months ago and it was driving me crazy so I spent hours with it. Was a spur of the moment madness I got sucked into, and when I'd finished, my fingernails on the tapping hand were trimmed. Probably more due to how I like to tap the tip of the fingers down hard. (Guitar is therapy.)

just out of curiosity what was with the atonal tappage...What sort of project were you working on? Also I am glad that guitar is able to be therapeutic for you...my guitar playing is unfortunatly at the other end of the spectrum...my family is starting to tell me that I require therapy because of it )-:

My friend had some guitar-competition that wasn't taking off. To get people to come out of the woodworks, there was nobody better suited to make a lousy contribution than me. Not having touched a guitar in ages, I got very intoxicated and figured I had to do something that sounded complicated but was very easy. Nothing easier than those you-know-who runs up and down the strings on the same frets like tap 15 pull off to 7, tap 14, pull off to 6, tap 13, pull off to 5, move up a string and do the same thing. Not sure if those exact frets sounds atonal, but just move the left hand until it does. It was driving me nuts to get it to flow in timing, so I noticed much later I'd worn down the nails. When tapping multiple fingers like that, I was taught to move the tapping finger inwards, so long nails wouldn't fare well in it. (As opposed to Eddie Van Halen 1-string tapping; for 1 string tapping I was taught to tap "away" downwards.)


It's therapeutic only because I now play like a completely deranged lunatic. I'll pick as fast as I can on one string, mix in the occasional powerchord, and move around on frets, switch to a different string and just do the same thing. Only thing I'll vary is the muting and frets. I don't care AT ALL about technique at the moment and I don't think the slightest about how much my arm moves or how the pick feels. I'll sit like that for an hour and feel such a release. My brain is completely unable to pick up whether it's 14 notes per second or 18.5 notes per second, but it's one or the other. Probably both. The left-hand is nowhere near. But what I must say is it's now fun to play. There's no pressure, no getting irritated over the sound or technique, and who knows, maybe it'll become something of it. To inject a little fun into it is healthy. A lot of fun in my case since it's all I do. Releases a lot of stress, as opposed to building it up getting pissed off over my rhythmic handicaps, crappy sounds, and repulsive legato.

If my former guitar-teacher that I turn to occasionally saw me now, I'm not sure what he'd say. :-) But at least 1 hour of picking at full speed will create familiarity with those strings a lot longer than taking 5 minute breaks to throw a tantrum over the sound, like I used to.

I clipped my nails man , it way better to tap like that....
I'm still learning tap, at least for now I'm Keeping my nails short.
Thank you guys for the ideas.