Every classical guitarist I know carries a small swatch of sandpaper in his of her guitar case for smoothing fingertips. I'm surprised that this is at all contoversial. #600 wet and dry is a very fine grain sandpaper. How often do you play modern guitar, Rob? It seems to me that if you play 2 to 4 hours a day on nylon strings without nails calluses are inevitable. But maybe I'm an anatomical oddity in more ways than one.
It's true that I have to be careful to smooth out my fingertips to play lute. An unfortunate fact of life if one continues to play guitar as well as lute, at least for me. Gary ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'gary digman'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "'lutelist'" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 1:45 AM Subject: RE: [LUTE] Re: Swanneck + loaded strings > Calluses? Sandpaper? Mimic nails? Is that a common experience? I must say, > Gary, that I've been playing without nails for almost 20 years, and my > finger tips are very soft and smooth. Sandpaper?! Must be my blue blood - > never done a day's work in my life. > > HRH Rob > > www.rmguitar.info > > > -----Original Message----- > From: gary digman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 10 December 2007 09:29 > To: lutelist > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Swanneck + loaded strings > > I play guitar (modern and baroque) without nails. It's true that some > techniques such as tremolo become much more diffcult without nails, but my > tremolo was never my strong suit anyway. I just got tired of constantly > messing with nails, trying to get them shaped right, etc. Since I started > playing lute, I kissed the nails goodbye. So far I've not regretted it. The > fingers develop calluses, which have to be sandpapered (#600 wet and dry) > smooth, but mimic the attack of nails on the guitar. > > Gary > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Alexander Batov" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "lute list" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> > Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 7:43 AM > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Swanneck + loaded strings > > > > On Sunday, December 09, 2007 3:06 PM LGS-Europe<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > .. > > > Nails/no nails have a similar effect on compositions; guitar players may > > > notice differences between Giuliani and Sor resulting from their use/no > > > use of nails. (Hmm, authentic Lobos on gut. ;-) ) > > > > > > > It'll take one good player to disproof this. In a similar vein, most of > the > > 5-course guitar music, for example, was very much likely played with nails > > anyway ... but how many modern performers play it like this (I mean on the > > 'baroque' guitar)? - Perhaps a few. At the same time there are some good > > ones who play with or without nails. > > > > Alexander > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > > > > > -- > > No virus found in this incoming message. > > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > > Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.16.17/1179 - Release Date: > 12/9/2007 11:06 AM > > > > > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.16.17/1179 - Release Date: 12/9/2007 11:06 AM > >
