Tips for a good tone for fingerpicking?

I'd like to play fingerstyle solos, but am having some problems.

I don't really like playing with fingernails. First off, I just don't like the feeling of the string going under my nail. And, I always feel like it's going to catch and hang, causing the note to be behind time and/or make that awful ~TWANG~ sound.

So, I'm trying to get them where there's just a bit of nail.

If I don't have nails at all, it seems that the tone is too soft and muffled.

I've also been messing around with hand positioning. It seems that if I angle my hand so my fingers are perpendicular to the strings, I get a stronger tone, but it seems like that would get crampy after a while.

Any tips for getting a good sound for fingerpicking?

Thanks,
Jason

Thanks for posting, i'm looking forward to any tips.

I cant grow good nails, and hate thumbpicks. When fingerpickin guitar it seems like your fingers get a bit calloused at the spot you hit the string , esp. your thumb.
Mississippi John had no long nails,, but Roy Bookbinder does.

IDK if uke strings would have enough abrasiveness to ever give your finger a harder surface to get more tone.
maybe harder plucking,
Steve

I'm still in the very beginning stages of this as well, but I notice I tend to play in two completely different areas ON the strings when strumming vs. picking.

I don't have a uke in front of me to describe exactly what I'm talking about, but I think I tend to gravitate towards the sound hole when picking - gives me the illusion that I have more room to move!

I'll be checking this thread often, I need all the help I can get too!

There a lot of tricks and technical considerations.

Fingernails: Not too long. You want to be using your finger, and have your nail just add a bit of punctuation to add brightness. You don't play primarily with your nails. The shape of your nail will vary depending on the shape of your finger and the nail itself (they are ALL different), and you will of course only be using one bit of your nail. If you're not vegetarian, eating gelatine helps strengthen nails. And don't be too brutal when you shape them. I've had guitarist nails for about 18 years, and I can't tell you what a difference it makes. If you think just fingers is too dull, nails are by far the cheapest, easiest solution. Start short, and grow until they do the job.

Finger stroke: play through the string. This feels very strange at first. You don't play up in a plucking way. You play through. The basic finger stroke goes more or less through the target string, and goes to rest on the next string. Many people play fingerstyle where they are constantly pulling the string away from the body. This either catches the string too strongly (and you get your string-under-nail scenario) or just grazes the string, in which case you get thin tone and low volume. And yes, if done properly, your hand is fairly parallel to the strings, and your fingers are fairly perpendicular. For a while, your hand will complain as you're making much more use of your hand muscles. When your hand is in the proper position, it is relaxed, and your 3 main fingers rest on the level of the strings. The little finger doesn't. It will be too high to play effectively. It only gets used on special occasions.

Strumming: once you have some nails, you'll find they open your strumming repertoire. Rasqueados, fan strokes, it all sounds bigger and brighter. Mind you, I say this, but am absolutely crap at the fan stroke. But when I play at my maximum speed of 3mph, it is nice and bright.



Hope that helps more than hinders.

Jason Paul said:

I don't really like playing with fingernails. First off, I just don't like the feeling of the string going under my nail. And, I always feel like it's going to catch and hang, causing the note to be behind time and/or make that awful ~TWANG~ sound.

Click to expand...

I too hate playing with nails for the same reasons you've listed. I cut my nails way back. This habit started when I was learning the guitar and it has evolved to how I play now on ukulele. I can still get a bright tone from the strings by curling my fingers slightly so that the edge of the nail goes across the string at the end of my plucking stroke. I've also been playing this way for many years and have nice callouses on my plucking fingertips (playing alot of bass guitar helps with this too) which provides for a fuller tone and volume. Experiment alittle with different playing positions or nail length and be patient in letting the tone in your fingers (callouses) develop.

I personally think that fingernails are an important ingredient to tone, but length shouldn't be the emphasis. Rather, filing your nails is what you need to be concerned. If you use a diamond edge filing board, file the left side of your nail at a slope. That way, when you pluck the string, you'll get a good combination of flesh and nail. To get rid of any nicks in your nails, you can polish the edges with high quality, ultra fine grit sandpaper. This will buff away any inconsistencies that will break the nail and give you a smoother playing surface.

The gelatin tip (ooh, bad pun) is a good one for building nail strength. But if you're in a hurry or there's an emergency before performance, you can always go with fake acrylic nails. You don't have to worry about growing time, and they're pretty durable, too.

Ani DiFranco plays fingerstyle guitar with fake nails and has been known on occasion to tear through the wood at the soundhole. So, if you use fake nails, stay calm!

If you feel the string is trying to go under your nail, you might be picking with your finger curved a bit too much and are hooking the the string on the way through. Unless I am trying to get a Clapton-like pop sound, I never pick where I hook the strings. Here is something that came to mind when I saw "tone" in the title: http://music.unm.edu/department_areas/guitar/ChapdelaineLesson1.pdf. It's for guitar, but the principles are the same.

Take a look at Scott Tennant's book Pumping Nylon. It is a classical guitar technique book, but there are entire chapters on nail shaping and hand position that are instrumental (no pun intended) in achieving good fingerstyle tone. If you have access to a local classical professional player, maybe over a coffee or other beverage you could get a lesson or two on technique and nail shaping. If you have the string under your nail, I can assure you that you are not using proper technique! You will be amazed at the volume and tone you can achieve with nails if you have proper technique.

Good luck!

Jon

I've found that I don't need my fingernails to be as long as I used to keep them for classical guitar... just enough to add a bit of percussive pop to a note by curling my finger back a little more. On uke, I tend to use the tops of my fingernails, rather than the ends for strumming anyway. A couple of things you could practice.... try plucking the string with the meat of your finger and instead of pulling it back and away from the strings, let it stop immediately on the next string. I'm not sure what the proper name for that is, but it's something I use on both guitar and bass. The other is to pluck the string at the tip of your finger, just enough to graze the string with your nail, but not catch it. You shouldn't ever "catch" the string under your nail. Right now, my fingernails don't extend more than a millimeter or so beyond the tips of my fingers.

And just to add: keep your left hand fingernails short and don't use a Kung Fu grip when fretting. Precision, cultivated as a habit is more important.

The plucking thing, BTW, is maybe 80% practiced in most YouTube sound samples of fingerstyle ukulele playing...I can see it as a technique for SOME blues type stuff here and there...but come on...almost statistically everyone...there's no way you can even approach brief tremolos in your playing going down that road...no need to make an already plunky soprano, for example, even more plunky. I think to some extent this is because that for many the first fingerstyle stuff they do IS blues...later on it gets harder to shut off.

I shape my nails because otherwise it... doesnt feel/ sound right..

on the upper side of the nail that i am playing with, i file toward the center of the nail at about 40-45 degrees.


here is the closest image i could find on the net.

The string runs along the straight part of the nail and *plings off the edge.

dont know if that helps

Thanks everyone for all of the tips.

And TreF - yes that helps VERY much - makes perfect sense. Though I read the previous posts about nail shape, the photo and your last sentence explain it perfectly. I actually just went and filed my nails and can tell a big difference. The spot where the straight edge ends and the natural nail curve begins forms sort of a "corner", which is what the string "plings" off of. After getting this, the previous posts about nail shape are making more sense.

Doing this instantly gave me more volume and a less muffled tone.

Thanks again,
Jason

NP, glad it helped you!

Check out the numerous YouTube videos featuring Ledward Kaapana. While best known as a slack key guitarist, Uncle Led is also a thrilling 'ukulele player. He uses a thumb pick and a single finger pick (just as he does on guitar). For starters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiiEDuebNfM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLlXdQF9du4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ9ud479YEI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okov254t8mE

Even if finger picks aren't for you, there's a lot to be learned by watching and listening.