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Fingernail Length


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My Hooft has metal ends, so fingernail length can not damage the ends, but I seem to play much better if my nails are a bit long. When I cut them, I cut pretty short (force of habit) and immediately my playing suffers! It takes about a week for the nails to grow again to "playing" length. The obvious solution is not to cut so short, but I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this??? :huh:

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Don't be to certain that metal ends are proof against fingernails. I have seen metal ends that have indentations just where the nails land against them I suppose it's just a similar thing to the old "water on stone" erosion.

 

I try not to cut my nails too short as I use them lke tweesers for picking up small items.

 

Was it Groucho Marks who was asked "Do you file your nails?" and replied "No I throw them away".

 

Robin Madge

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It works the other way round for me. When my nails get to a certain length I just can't play as well, as the "feel" isn't quite as good. However I don't cut them extremely short, which means that I am usually giving them a trim every 3 to 4 weeks.

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My Hooft has metal ends, so fingernail length can not damage the ends, but I seem to play much better if my nails are a bit long. When I cut them, I cut pretty short (force of habit) and immediately my playing suffers! It takes about a week for the nails to grow again to "playing" length. The obvious solution is not to cut so short, but I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this??? :huh:

Bill,

 

I have felt this. I think the brain uses the feeling of the protruding part of the nail touching against your finger to assess pressure of touch. As you press a button the skin of your finger is pushed up into the fingernail, and you can feel how hard this is happening, and use it to regulate the finger pressure. If you shorten the nail you have less feeling, less sensitive touch.

 

How's the Hooft..?

 

Chris

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Ah, the Hooft, Chris! The best thing to come into my life since my wife of fifty years! I have other instruments, but the Hooft went with me to Ireland in May this year. I played in Ennis, in Doolin and in Galway. Had a wonderful time meeting other musicians in the pubs, who invited me in because I had the concertina with me. I'm off to New York city next month, and of course the Hooft goes where I go, so I hope to be playing in a few pubs there as well!

 

Your thought about the fingernails makes sense - I never thought of the "problem" in those terms, but that is what is happening to me when my nails are soooo short! I suppose that I'll just have to leave them a bit longer from now on :D

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If you shorten the nail you have less feeling, less sensitive touch.

I don't think so. Not less sensitive; just differently sensitive. Or to put it another way, it's not loss of sensitivity, but loss of orientation. For those -- like me -- who normally have short fingernails (because if I don't cut them, they split, and then I have to trim what's left), the difficulty comes if/when the nails manange to grow longer than I'm used to.

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