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"You start off playing the guitar to get girls, and end up talking to middle aged men about your fingernails." Ed Gerhard

This guy is so powerful he can extract and retract his nails at will

I just can't get over this guy's technique. How can he possibly comb his hair that way?

Title translation: 'People are onto the fact that I'm a vampire lord so I need to change things up'

you nailed it... i'll show myself out

You and Adam Neely are literally resposible for my persistent practicing for two years, after not having played for 15 years or so. Thanks.

I work with my hands as a metalworker -- goldsmithing, machinist, etc. So my nails have always been a trainwreck and I have to keep them very short. I simply can't ever grow and maintain 5 beautiful ramped nails on my right hand for the length of any work week. I've been a classical guitar student for 15 years and have always been told I'll "never get it right" since I don't have nails. However I've been playing "wrong" despite my "handicap" for all that time because I love the guitar. I'll never be a concert player -- just not in the cards. But I'll never stop loving to spend time playing for my own enjoyment. This video has been incredibly liberating to see that there are great classical players like you and MacKillop out there developing a body of technique for nail-less playing that stands on its own and to hear that there is such a long history of giants who played nail-less. I look forward to seeing ways toward improving my nail-less playing and developing toward a technique that needs no apology. Thanks very much!

Nails sounds like it's played as a performance, and no nails sounds like it's being played for someone intimately

I've been a no nails player forever, just gonna watch to learn how wronh i've been doing it

The no nail playing makes me really nostalgic. Basically the sound when I started to play the guitar as a kid

I am a long student of classical guitar. My teacher senior Hector Garcia taught me to play with no nails. I have always felt the lack of volume was traded with the full control of tone and softness of the intrustment. Growing up, other players I would see would play with nails, and it always seemed a bit of a controversy but i always maintained the guitar sounded more romantic without nails. Very happy you did this video.

This is the best and most comprehensive video on how to play beautifully with no nails. As a pianist, I have to keep my nails very, very short, so I wondered whether I would be able to learn and play the guitar well with a no-nail method. This convinces me. Thank you, Brandon!

I used play with nails, and I hated it because it is very inconsistent because the nails are changing. Last year I watched your video, I loved the idea. I started play guitar (acoustic, classical, electric) without nails and I love it. No more dependency. Now I watch this video again, this is a good chance for me to say thank you.

as a chronic nailbiter, I gotta admit it's nice to see that a bunch of historic Classical composers were like "nah, y'know what? Flesh is pretty cool actually"

I had a teacher named Phillip DeFremery in college who played classical guitar with no nails. His tone was just hauntingly beautiful and 20 years later it’s still what comes to mind when I think of the ideal guitar tone.

I'm a steel string folk player. I play with a thumb pick and my fingers without nails. I find this warms up the higher strings and the thumb pick brightens up the bass notes.

Y'all should really check out Rob MacKillop, he plays masterfully without nails. I fell in love with his rendition of adelita especially

I just love the no nails sound. It’s so much warmer.

For the longest time the sound with no nails is my favorite, hands down. Glad to see you give it a try.

My guitar instructor taught me to cut my nails short on the right side of the finger but leave them longer on the left side. When you want a "warm" sound you just tilt your hand clockwise a few degrees. The best of both worlds available real time.

As a no nail guitar player with 10+ years of experience i can say that for me personally playing with nails is much better. You dont appreciate nails until you have them. 2 years ago i decided to finally grow the nails and that was the best decision in my life in terms of guitar. Nails give you the sound. Of course,if you have no intensions of playing for any kind of a crowd playing without nails is totally fine. But if you want to have a loud attack with a great accuracy - nails is what you should have. Cause you just cant really control your attack with no nails. And another aspect is,when you perform in front of a crowd and adrenalin starts to kick in - your fingers are starting to sweat. And this is probably the worst thing about playing without nails. The skin on your fingers can hit multiple conditions throughout the perfomance and you always need to adjust. When with nails you're just playing with no adjustments. Anyway,just my opinion:)

I love that Brandon is always smiling :)

I don't even play guitar but I love these videos. I love the self-reflection on technique and how much genuine wonderment there is at even the smallest detail.

"Your left hand is what you know, Your right hand is who you are".

Doing a medical job I have to cut down my nails and I have being used playing guitar without. So thank you very much for introducing the historical background and advice to improve this technique. Kind regards from Germany

Huge respect to this man, this guy was playing without just so he can understand how to play without nails. I'm currently growing my nails right now but they're still short and this is very helpful, thanks!

I’ve also transitioned to no nail playing, the reason being that I usually play many different instruments, not just the guitar. And nails get in the way. But what’s happened is that I’ve come to love it more and more. Sound is a very subjective experience and I love how you can grow into it.

I can’t concentrate, I’m just admiring this guy literally PERFECT hands

I had lots of down time because of chronic broken nails problem. I had no idea no nail playing was a thing. I was absolutely blown away that you can play tremolo without nails.

I'm not a musician, but I've always loved classical music. I just stumbled on your channel and I have to say hearing you play makes my heart happy and sing. You've gained a fan. Thank you.

This is excellent Brandon, I grew up listening to my oldest brother play classical guitar and remember him filing nails while watching television. When I first started playing at age 50 I realized a pick was not for me, I wanted to simply play with my fingers. I tried growing my nails but found it to be difficult. They chipped and ripped easily and one would hook as it grew longer. I have been playing with no nails for 7 years now, on both steel and nylon string and most recently in the classical position. I have found what works for me. Thank you for sharing your gift.

When I was younger I struggled to understand how to develop and shape my nails. I always found my nails to be quite thin, and it always produced a very "scratchy" sound. I've tried fake nails, shaping cut outs of ping pong balls to glue underneath, the nails, you name it. But it was always to no avail. I adapted to no nail playing out of necessity, and it was quite encouraging when I learned that Tarrega played without nails. I really appreciate you giving me a different perspective with no nail playing by pressing down on the string before releasing it, I've always kinda glided over the strings and the feel difficult to catch when I'm playing faster passages.

Everyone should check out Rob MacKillop if you're interested in no-nail classical guitar playing. He is an absolutely excellent player who has extensive knowledge on playing without nails.

Héctor García, really the only disciple of Pujol, (lived with him for years) was my teacher. If you are serious about learning to play with finger tips i may be able to get you in contact with him. There is an interview with him from 2012 on youtube where he plays a few song you should take a look. He has an incredible life story which he goes into a bit in that same interview as well. he is 90 now(81 in the interview) so strike while the iron is hot you may not get another chance.

Jazz guitar virtuoso, Joe Pass, made a number of recordings playing classical guitar (Fitzgerald and Pass Again, with Ella is a good example and a brilliant study of how to accompany a jazz singer). You can tell he’s not using much nail. I love Joe’s playing on classical guitar. The instrument causes him him to slow down and play more compositionally with, to my heart, more emotionally.

I’m so happy you’ve seen the light. I switch from no nail finger picking and an actual pick for crisper solos myself😇

When I was a working clarinetist, people were always chasing that "dark, German" sound, if you know what I mean. What happened is that many players found equipment/techniques that sounded so dark and lovely where they sat, but forgot to take into account that the upper partials are necessary for proper projection, so their sound was unfocused and tubby by the time it got to the audience. I wonder if our current circumstances, which have brought us all into smaller spaces and proximity to our recording equipment, can be biasing us. I would certainly like to hear your experiments in a hall before I would make an absolute judgment one way or the other.

Nails are essentially picks so they’re helpful if you need extra volume or if you are looking for that particular timbre but if you’re in an intimate space nothing beats nail-less. Sounds particularly good on ukuleles in my opinion.

For those of us who can't stop biting their nails, there's finally hope.

I don't play guitar well, but love the instrument. But I often hated that sharp, focussed, loud sound of the guitar, and do love the intimate soft one. So, I hope that more guitar players adopt that style which is a lot more pleasant to my musical ear.

I can't grow nails. I always felt "less than capable" as a result. As a result of this video, I've been playing more, quite confident in my sound. The tremolo without nails to me is very emotional. Makes me want to hug the sound.

You are such a good teacher/communicator and guitar historian .

Just thinking how blessed I was to have been fortunate to see Segovia live. I think it was 1981. He played three sessions. An old man he moved slowly on and off the stage. But his fingers moved like a young master.

My day job is terribly rough on nails in general, and some years ago I got my thumb jammed in a mechanical apparatus which rendered me permanently incapable of growing a proper thumbnail. Those are the main reasons I generally avoided getting too serious about classical guitar, especially when I could play electric fingerstyle without nails just fine. The reason I'm really diggin' this series is probably obvious.

Great video Brandon. Love the history and all the examples. Well thought out. I've always liked players who play solos without nails but once they play in an ensemble of other guitarists who do use nails they run into serious trouble blending and keeping up clarity and volume. And certainly on the concert stage in larger halls the mellowness increases to such an extent as being mushy and undefined. That said, at home, in the studio, or in smaller halls it works well and can be great, especially for plucky early music or uncomplicated textures.

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I am a beginner and l ove this, I have never been able to grow nails and this is the first time I have seen a professional play without nails and like it. I have always loved the sound I get without nails.

I'm gratefully new to this channel, but in every video I've seen thus far Brandon is smiling unconditionally. It seems as though he has truly found his purpose and is blessed to do what he loves as a living. It's both interesting and inspiring to watch his videos.

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5 stars, thank you so much - I’ve had to play no-nails from the beginning for various reasons and this made me feel much better about my playing

This is great! I’m a steelplayer myself and rarely play nylon. I have adopted non pick playing over the years and I can really appreciate the comparison between pros and cons in your video between different approaches to plucking the string. Thank you, you inspire me. 👍🏻

I literally cut my nails yesterday and have been trying to figure out how to play properly since then

I haven't seen you before so I'm very glad that this is the lesson I landed on. I'm just learning classical guitar and am subscribed to ToneBase. I've always hated long nails and when I saw someone who played classical without nails I was intrigued. But I guess I've felt like I was cheating by not wanting nails nor playing with them. This vid makes me feel so much better and quite frankly makes sense to me. I'm a classically trained pianist and hate the clicking of nails on the keys as well. Thank you - and you have such a pleasant demo style!

Yes finally someone that has represented beauty of the mellow tone from nailless playing. Much appreciated friend

It’s really nice to find a video that doesn’t immediately dismiss no-nail playing as incorrect.

Emilio Pujol's "The Dilemma of Timbre on the Guitar" is indispensable reading on this subject

Your positivity is contagious! Really appreciated the info and the presentation. Nice.

Brandon, this is the first video of yours that I have seen. Top quality in every aspect: total clarity in explanations and images, cosy setting and relaxed, ego-free attitude. From now on, count me among your subscribers! You have rekindled my desire to learn to play classical guitar. I will find a way to put it into practice. For all this (and for making me shed tears after just 3 seconds of Recuerdos de la Alhambra), a big THANK YOU! Greetings from Italy

I tried growing nails after watching your videos, but im also a woodworker, so the nails didnt last long. Makes me happy to know its a choice not a prerequisite.

I love Rob Mackillop's playing/channel- I'm in the middle of making him an instrument :)

Thanks Brandon, very nice video. As absolute beginner in my 44 without no musical experience I realy apreciate your passion and explanation of topic. Thanks.

Thank you so much for making this video I thought I was doomed to never play classical guitar my nails would always brake off and I had to wait a week or two for them to grow back just for them to brake again. I tried the techniques in your video and they worked. I've been at it for 25 years and watched many youtube videos and was about to give it up . Your video was the first I have seen that covers this. Thanks again you've given me real hope🙂

I'm so glad you posted this. I've been trying to teach myself classical so I grew my nails out figuring it's the best way to play. But they get in the way of so much of my other "normal" activities. If my favorite classical guitarist can do it with no nails then that gives me hope! Thank you.

Virginia Luque is a world-class virtuoso who plays without nails.

I played for many years without nails, but love them now and can't see me going back (except for when they break). I play both classical and flamenco and will admit that when my nails break I can "get by" with classical playing better than flamenco.

This is truly an amazing lesson. Respectfully honoring choices, history, professional opinions, experimentation, and the impact on the listener/audience of what the music ultimately transmits. Well done sir. And thank you. I learned much, and was delighted by your approach.

Dear Brandon, thank you for this warm and thoughtful video on no nail technique! I am a pianist, but studied classical guitar as well for teaching purposes. I cannot play virtuoso piano with the nails on my right hand, and honestly it forced me to make choice which instrument to actually practise, I couldn't have both of those worlds at the same time. Now you ve'given me a hope that I can finally connect both instruments with this no nail technique. It is going to be a huge adjustment, but I am ready for it!💪 Thank you very much and keep up your great work!🎶🤗

1. In all of the introducing videos, I noticed that none of the lute and baroque guitar players in the paintings had long nails. 2. When you started playing without the nails, you rested your pinky on the guitar just like they did in the paintings. Thank you so much for doing this

When I first started playing classical guitar, I had thick calluses on my right-hand fingers from years of playing the string bass. They made a very particular sound when plucking the nylon strings. The calluses went away once I grew my nails out (18 years w/ nails now), and if I cut my nails now the skin is baby soft. But to this day I still miss that particular sound and the feeling of plucking the strings with the fingertips. I know what you mean when you say "I feel more in touch with making the sound." Thanks for making this video and making me reconsider it!

I just discovered you with this video and I am already passioned with your content. You play tremendously well, your explanation are short and condensed but still very precise. Thank you for your work on KZfaq !

Sohr was talking guitar effects way before electric guitars. A man truly ahead of his time 😉

This is an amazingly eye opening video, thank you for your dedication and knowledgeable information.

Nice explanation as always. My teacher taught me that either long or short nail is entirely personal preference. And he personally likes it short, and I followed him because apart from warmer sound, it actually gave me more 'feel' or 'closeness' to my playing. When the nail gets longer it feels more 'detached', at that point I know that it is time to trim my nails.

Your point about feeling more in touch with the instrument was my feeling when I stopped using a plectrum a couple of years ago (I play jazz, and mostly keep my nails pretty short). Great video!

just watched 15min of ads just to show how much I appreciate your content.

Hi Brandon, you are one of the best classical guitarists I heard playing of in modern days. I watched the video of you and Rob playing a variety of classical guitars and I was so blown away by your playing of Gymnopédie no.1 where you play the melody by string harmonics. I was wondering if you can do a video playing the song doing the exact thing you did in that video? Please 🥺

Finally lol, I love playing with nails. Unfortunately I hate them for anything else other than guitar. They get dirty, they break easily, and they feel horrible to type on. Now, thanks to you, I won’t feel guilty about cutting them. Now my right hand could feel normal again.

Thanks so much for making this video because it affirms my experience of playing gut string guitars for almost 35 years now.

As a baker, nails are an impossibility! Thank you for this content.

Very helpful 👌👌👌 I play guitar and piano. It's nearly imposible for me to play difficult pieces on the 2 intruments in the same week.

Very interesting. I've been playing electric bass for 15 years now, during wich I developed the exact same plucking technique prescribed by Fernando Sor without any knowledge of him. In my experience, bass players with (what I think is) a good tone and solid projection uses this technique. It is also of my belief that it helps with consistency and accuracy in time/rhythm, thanks to a clearer and more defined attack. Compared to attacking the string by "going through it" that is.

Thank you Brandon, really enjoyed the video and the warm way in which you delivered it. Best wishes from Scotland, Dan

I have watching your videos for a good while, I have learned so much that I have improved and impressed friends that are professional musicians. Thank you Sir!

Great video, thanks! Life-long no-nail player, always felt like a fraud. Never knew about Sor, Carcassi, and Tarrega’s not playing with nails! So glad you’re enjoying this new, ‘warmer’ chapter of your career: thanks for sharing.

I only dabble a tiny bit in classical guitar, but I've always played with no nails because A) I hate having long nails in general and B) I rock climb so I need to keep my nails short. I had no idea playing without nails was actually somewhat common. Everyone who has taught me classical had long nails. It's nice to know there's a contingent of classical guitarists who prefer to not have nails.

I'm so happy to see this! I've going between nails and no nails for forever. Mostly because I'm in love with electric bass (which practically uses the classical rest stroke). I'm hoping more will realize there is more than one way to play!

This videO makes me aprehensive because whenever i file my nails a little bit more than what i'm used to, i feel like a total beginnner at guitar for a good 2 weeks until my nails grow.

I played classical guitar for 10 years without nails, only in the last 2 months have I started using nails. The biggest difference I noticed is with the nails I have much much better precision, e.g. an even tremolo, and things just generally sound slightly less sloppy when going fast. I wish I could swap interchangeably between the two as you said; softer tones are just not the same with a nail.

Thank you for a brilliant video and demonstration. Your sound and musical expression without nails is intoxicatingly beautiful! Soundwise it is a no-brainer, because it cuts through to the essence of what you are playing. Maybe playing with nails is just too easy and the obvious mystery disappears, who knows... The Torres guitar is a mystery box after all.

That tremolo without nails was beautiful. I’m sold

A couple things: I'm so glad you posted this because I hate keeping my nails long. Thank you for introducing me to no nail technique! And I can't wait to hear you master mixing nail and no nail!!

I’ve heard the lutenist David Miller play Schubert on a 19th century gut string guitar with Renaissance lute technique and no nails. Sounded great!

Dear Brother Maestro Brandon Ackerman, I have been admiring your excellent guitar mastery over the last couple/several years. You are truly an exceptional person. Not only are you a true guitar maestro of the caliber of the past greats, do you are also a humble and seemingly wonderful specimen of humanity. I thank G-D for giving us true artists like you. I’ve seen your interactions with Rob Scallion and I can say the same for him. I myself am a bit of a musical polymath of sorts. I can play almost every instrument on earth, and explain the tunings and why the instrument was/is tuned that way. Everything from brass, woodwinds, everything with strings and keys from five continents. However, I am only a wannabe. I know whether a player I’d good or not. I can honestly say that I myself am a musical Jack of all trades, but a master of none. Absolutely none. I play passably on some instruments but terribly on others; and I am very very aware of my shortcomings. Luckily I went into medicine rather than music or I would have died of starvation decades ago. I first picked up a $15 guitar 62 years ago and taught er myself how to play and read for it. But I’ve been cursed with very fine hair which goes along with my very fine friable finger nails. I simply could never maintain them long enough the play the classical guitar. One or more of my left fingers would always break off, and in a bad way. Now at age 74 I have been invigorated by your wonderful video. You have given me hope! Now if I can only live to age 400-500 years I will be able to master all of my musical instruments. In case any of your viewers are “too old” to start to learn an instrument, I did not take lesions of the violin, viola, and cello until I was fifty. Forty years ago I dated an opera singer, and she would always tell me that “if you can hear it, you can play it”. That statement is deeper than it sounds on first hearing. I would like to share someone wonderful. Go to you tube and look for Schindler’s List Played on a Harmonica by Philip Achille. Then Bach -A minor Violin Concerto (1st May) harmonica version performed by Philip Achille. Brother Brandon, you are an inspiration. Thank you for being you! PS you and your readers might enjoy someone funky from down New Zealand way: Trent Hamilton. He is a brass aficionado. He has forgotten more than I’ve ever known. He is a lot of fun but informative. If you’ve ever had self-image problems you can imagine what life was like for me. An American peasant boy who took professional accordion lesions from age 7 to 17. My dad wanted me to be a professional jazz and classical accordionist. Thank G-D the the Moog synthesizer and Rock & Roll destroyed any possibility of making his dreams come true, or like too many of my teachers (except Charles Nunzio) I probably would have died with a hero on needle in my arm. He who studies the left hand of the Stradella bass piano accordion has memorized the circle of fifths and a lot of other chordal structures without ever realizing it. Someday I will write my autobiography. But I already have written my epitaph: “He Tried….” Brother Brandon, I have rambled in my tangential thinking for too many paragraphs. But I thank the L-ORD that once in every generation someone like you and Rob Scallion come along and allow us to aspire to go higher and further into the infinity of pure music. You are a master teacher and a master inspirer for poor blokes like me. It never too late. I just started studying classical organ last year at age 73. And because of Brother Philip Achille am now taking seriously the intricacies of the Chromatic harmonica of which I possess four (but never realized their true potential). Now I will begin to study. I went to a public school in a last class small town in norther New Jersey. No one took anything seriously. I joined the school band in the seventh grade and got put on the third clarinet. Only years later did I come to realize that the short bald Sicilian-American bandmaster had his M.A. in performance on the euphonium from The Juilliard School of Music. How that middle aged man ever wound up in my public school is a mystery of Biblical proportions. Two years later I took a seat as the second Baritone player. The Guitar and Mandolin and String bass were self taught. As you are aware the mandolin uses the same timing as the violin and the string bass the same as the four lowest guitar strings. On my way to study my junior year abroad in Bombay India I stopped at a bazaar in Istanbul and purchased an antique wooden transverse flute (with an open G# key) which I taught myself to play based on my prior knowledge of the clarinet which is tuned in 12ths unlike the octave tunings on the flute. Then I wondered into the Sitar and the Vina. A couple of years later on medical missionary trips to Kowloon and New Territories Hong Kong I took private lessons studying with a man who was probably yje greatest master of the Chinese Gu Zhang with its pentatonic tuning and with the Pipa. And in the Middle East studied every category of Arabic, Turkish and Armenian instruments. And the theories behind the scales and tunings. Now that I grow older I don’t know what to do with this lifetime of music. Perhaps in the Olam Ha Ba, the Life to Come it will all make sense. The bassoon is tough to learn because of the absurd finderings. Your thumbs are actually used for something other than holding up the instrument and pressing the octave key! Astor Piazzolla, the great Argentinian-Italian-American bandoneon master once said the the devil himself must have designed the fingerings for that instrument. Both the left hand and the right hand keyboards make make no sense in their layouts and the instrument is diatonic. I own thee Afred AA’s and it’s still the only instrument I can not play. That helps me quite humble. I am a terrible musician; and I am the first one to tell you. Therefore it lessens the damage I can do! There nothing so bad as a singer or instrumentalist that is out of tune and doesn’t even realize it. Especially if playing/singing sharp in the upper octaves. Note hoe “intune” Brother Philip Achille is with his chromatic harmonica. Addendum: the chromatic harmonica is worse than the lute (which is forever out of tune). The slightest thing “off” will render a chromatic harmonica pick up a dead note. (Bring your own repair kit) and carry one or two extra chromatics if on a gig. I hope I haven’t confused and bored you and all of your followers with my musical rankings. Mae West was married to the very famous accordionist Guido Deiro. And one of my accordion masters was Charlie Nunzio from Nutley New Jersey. He was old when I was a kid. He only recently died at nearly one hundred years of age. Those facts and a nickel will get you a ride on the New York subway. Have a wonderful day; and keep sharing how not having fingernail can give an old man hope!

Thank you for this. It feels so nice to use my PC with short nails AND without compromising my sound while playing guitar.

Your gentle wisdom is so compelling, Thank you.

This is so extremely well done and exceptionally helpful! As a long time classical player and teacher with good nail challenges- dry and brittle in winter, this comes as a brilliant solution. Funny story, for my adjudication in University I used ping pong ball material as nails-super-glued on, I read about the trick in GP mag. Again, your analysis of the tonal differences is key here. I'm getting over the brilliance and overtones of nails. Thanks!!

I used to be skeptical about the nails. Now I can't see how I can play without them. This will be interesting.

So glad I found this channel. I'm really loving these videos. Very well done, thanks!

I’ve always played without nails because I can’t stand getting dirt under them and I’m also an avid outdoorsman so, that always happens. Awesome video!