Fingerstyle self-accompaniment

There are a couple of ways of going at it and, for a pick player, the first move is to augment the technique you already have, using the flatpick as a thumb, and middle and ring fingers in place of index and middle. Sooner or later, that means the pinkie is going to be pressed into service, standing in for the ring finger on PIMA (Pulgar, Indice, Medio, Anular, or thumb, forefinger, middle finger, ring finger) patterns. It seems clumsy at first, but is perfectly viable for an awful lot of material. I did it with metal picks because my nails were weak and I was trying to get a better balance between the sound of the flatpick and the fingers, but another approach could be to use a thicker, blunt pick to take down the treble content in the bass figures against fingers and nails in the treble. After many years working like this, I got tired of the tone of the picks. I tried introducing thumb and fingers for some pieces, but in those days I was working in pub and Irish bands, and the repertoire was very flexible, so I usually ended up back on the picks pretty quickly. A few weeks later, I snapped. At the start of a gig I put the metal picks on the floor and crushed them flat, and put the flatpick down a crack in the stage. The big bonus was the ability to use the back of a fingernail for down strokes — a big thick attack with loads of mid and punch — and that’s the great trade you get for losing your fingerpicks. Once upon a time, before amps and acoustic guitar pickups became so accommodating, you needed fingerpicks just for volume. But with an electric, that’s no longer an issue as the amp does the heavy lifting. So, what about fast runs? Well, to be honest, who cares? In fact, there’s a sense of pace to be had without much speed, simply by alternating between thumb and first finger. The damping that happens naturally produces a thick staccato that puts a space between the notes. If you go legato you can re-finger to include hammer-ons and pull-offs, and if these are too hard to execute cleanly, have a look at your fret bead and see if you can get something higher put in. It’s only a question of practice to develop enough strength in your left hand to balance hammers and pulls against your right hand, so you can do it without a compressor. If you watch Jeff Beck doing a little run, you’ll see that alternate thumb and first finger technique in operation, and that’s how he gets his tone. 0

Nail enhancements — a how-to

The art of makeshift acrylic nails

Not all of us have hefty nails, and some of us need a little artificial help. Portuguese guitarists will tape a piece of plectrum-like material onto the ends of their right-hand fingers. I don’t know if we have to go this far — they’re playing a double-course acoustic instrument with quite significant string tension — but it’s a trick worth trying out if only to discover how long you can keep it up before your fingertips go blue.

I played at a guitar festival decades ago where a kind and inspired soul brought us together from the far-flung, and we gathered and gossiped during the breaks. Huddled into little groups, men gruffly fussed about nails, varnishes and files. I was new to it, still using picks, and marvelled at the surreality. Since I threw my picks away, I’ve tried all sorts of nail-reinforcement methods, broken nails live and suffered the musical equivalent of the centipede with a wooden leg. I’ve heard of guitarists (über-folkie Martin Simpson, for instance) going to nail salons and getting one hand done for half rate, but have steered clear of a salon fix because of tales that they cut into the natural nail surface to make a key for acrylics.

As my nails are in need of a change, I’ll use the opportunity to demonstrate the technique I use. I know my method is ugly; it’s clearly outré and is all done cack-handedly, but it gigs reliably with cheap and simple maintenance. These kinds of nail enhancements are often referred to as ‘acrylic nails’ (though most enhancements are acrylic-based), and the system is a widely used ‘liquid and powder’ system. You can pick up your tools and potions quite easily in supermarkets, hardware shops and on-line.

I used to treat my nails with sweet almond oil and use them au naturel, but found that sooner or later in a tour I’d have to repair a break. Then I used superglue and whatever tissue was handy to make a patch. This made for inconsistent attacks and bits that flew off or caught under the string during frailing and, as my nails weakened anyway as I got older, I went over to using all artificials. My thumb is the exception; it’s still in fine fettle. I used superglue and tissue for quite a while, but gradually found out more about wraps and acrylic. I owe much to a manicurist in Texas who used to house-call a friend to pimp her claws.

This is a fibreglass wrap, a silk version is also available. It comes in a roll-on backing paper, I cut a piece the right width for the nail I want to fix, and peel the wrap from the backing paper. I use it because I know the nail will come off regularly, and I believe the base of criss-crossed fibres gives it a more solid structural integrity.

As I’ll need to use powder throughout the process, I load some for use into small plastic pouring bottles. I use it to give thickness and shapeable body on top of the wrap’s lateral strength.

Superglue’s weakest aspect is its resistance to a shearing force, so if the nail has been on for a few days, quite often a little twist along the nail plane will shift it. Easing a toothpick under a bit that has lifted already will help it. If it won’t come off easily, then I leave it for a day or so. Don’t force the nail off, it will hurt and damage the natural nail. If you really have to get it off urgently, then you’ll just have to dissolve it layer by layer with acetone. If the false nail is thick, it will take a good hour to get it down to clean. Most of the time this isn’t an issue — they’ll fall off naturally anyway and the first you’ll know about it will be the rattle in the Hoover. I buy acetone at a hardware store; it’s the same as the nail salons sell, give or take a bit of scent, and umpteen times cheaper. Some salon stuff may have oil added, but it actually makes more sense to do any oiling separately. Sweet almond oil is best because it’s fatty and uncoloured, but olive oil will do fine. Sometimes it’s handy to keep some old ones to use if you lose one just before a gig, as it’s much quicker to re-use an old one than making one new.

Sometimes they curl up a bit, and when I stick them back on, they can exert pressure on the natural nail and make it uncomfortable. I’ve always found that filing the top thinner releases the tension of the curve. This filing of the top also applies to new nails I might have made too thick.

Usually when a nail comes off, I leave the natural nail bare for as long as possible to let the air get to it, and at the end of a tour I assume I’m not going to play for a while and will take all my false nails off, let the natural nails dry out, and then rub sweet almond oil in to help them recover for the next onslaught. It is essential to make sure they’re absolutely clean before re-fitting nails so no bacteria grow underneath. An alcohol hand cleaner will help if there are time pressures, and one does need to keep an eye out for any signs of fungus. It’ll usually be Candida albicans, the demon behind athlete’s foot. I’ve been lucky and avoided it, even having had artificial nails on for as long as three and a half months during a long tour.

This picture shows the wrap being superglued to the nail. There’s enough tack to hold it there while I reach for the glue and pour it on. It will soak through the wrap onto the nail, and when it dries will stick the wrap to the nail.

One nail salon I went into swore blind they wouldn’t use anything so crude as Superglue. The woman said they used a “resin”. I bought a tiny 2g bottle for £5.99 because I was curious and they’d been helpful. When I got it home and found my reading glasses, the bottle said it contained ‘cyanoacrylate’. That’s Superglue! Cyanoacrylate cures by absorbing moisture. If you have a spill, pour water on it and then scrape up the cured gunk. Remember that it bonds skin pretty much instantly because people are moist.

When the glue holding the wrap has set, which will be very quickly, I add more glue and pour on some powder.

I gradually build up a few layers, making sure the nail is covered properly. I try to avoid any troughs on the surface, and fill them as I go. As the layers go on, pat the powder flat with either a piece of paper or a left-hand finger. A finger will get a scab of glue and powder on it, but it comes off easily enough with a file when it’s dry. When it’s dry enough, I trim the excess wrap off with scissors. Bearing in mind I’m doing it left-handed, I don’t cut too close. The real tidying up is going to be done later with a grit board (coarse nail file).

Now I’ve got to the dry blank nail, I move to the cutting back and shaping stages.

Using a grit board, I take off the mess at the front of the nail.

Before I do any serious work on the back of the nail, I try to remember to put a strip of surgical tape over the skin, as the edges of the grit board can be very sharp. I’ve had a few cuts along the way.

This is about as far as I like to go with the grit board. It’s a reasonable enough point at which to move to the trés élégante mock leopard-skin board with medium grit on one side and medium-fine grit on the other. It’ll take out the deeper gouges of the coarse grit, and is a little more distinguished than the lurid pink one I had before.

By now it’s starting to look viable, so it’s time to start tidying up the edges. You may notice some tack left by the surgical tape, which can be removed very quickly and easily with citrus — lemon or orange juice will do it. There is also a tack remover spray available from Maplin that smells lovely!

At a pinch, this is giggable. I regard doing the nail and photographing the process about as difficult as replacing my nail in the passenger seat of a bouncing rental car. This is a ‘near enough’ kind of result that I’ve lived with often enough before.

If I had time before a show, I’d be working on the area of the nail that will contact the string with fine polishing boards so that it glides across the string as easily as the nails on either side. If there wasn’t time, then I’d probably try to avoid playing any piece that requires fast alternate index and middle fingers against an alternating thumb, and I’d have to be very careful with right-hand rolls.

There’s a trough at the back of the nail, which is not good, but it’s out of the way of backstrokes, and is easy enough to take care of in a week or so when the first back-fill becomes necessary. A back-fill is simply a matter of pushing the skin back from the artificial nail as it moves forward with natural nail growth, and then pouring superglue and powder into the gap and blending it down.

Fingerstyle self-accompaniment

A smart move for guitarists?