I purchased my Padauk 10 string Stick more than 12 months ago. I have been taking lessons by Skype with Dave Brosky and after months of me noodling in isolation, he has enabled me to make good progress. During this time, I noticed that I was very imprecise in my tapping and often double-fretting and/or muting adjacent strings. Lack of skill/dexterity is the main part of the problem but it caused me to reflect on the state of my finger-tips.

You see, I have been a serious nail-biter all my life. I am 62 years of age. I can't remember a time when I didn't bite my nails. When I bought the Stick I had my nails back to about 1/8 inch long! I looked closely at my fingers as they pressed on the strings and saw my finger pads roll upwards and outwards above where the top of my nails should be.

It's now been 3 months since I stopped biting my finger-nails. I now have nails that are almost out to the tips of my fingers. I can report that I am now much more precise with my tapping with much less muting or double fretting going on. There has probably been some dexterity/skill improvement in that time as well but I have no doubt that having reasonable finger-nails keeps those fleshy finger pads under control and soon, I might even be able to pluck a string or two!

Cheers,

Simon

I am glad that your Stick playing has cured you of a bad habit, let alone improved...or some such assemblage of verbiage. I need sleep.

I don't bite my nails but I keep cutting them to zero. I find uncomfortable playing when they get any longer.

Inviato dal mio C5503 utilizzando Tapatalk

I want to point out that I am very very proud of Simon. Why.... many reasons come to mind, but this one is the first and foremost.

The Stick was his first instrument- EVER! :o So i think there was a thread about everyone "coming to the Stick from bass, keyboard, hand drums..." Simon chose this way to start his musical journey. So he is living proof it can be done.

His motivation level is off the hook, and his heart is always in the right place which has a lot to do with his amazing progress. He was reading music ( which he never did before) with the Stick and playing complete songs in under 3 months.

He is on a walkabout right now where he is trying to use the skills, concepts and ideas we went over to arrange songs. He checks in occasionally with a video, e-mail, or a quick SKYPE chat to go over things, but still on his amazing climb.

He doesn't do this full time, and did NOT go to Berklee or another fine music institution. Just had DBro"s "Dave's Magic Book of Tricks" ( not sold in stores- FREE to my students- seminar or SKYPE) and a consistent session schedule. We supplement with e-mail pdf's and mp3s.

On the nail thing, I never noticed, but SKYPE will never win awards for sharpness or clarity.
IMHO, I keep mine short but existent to keep the pad in place. Too long then the nail will hit the board first and cause many note errors. Plus in the NorthEast we always have to worry about splits and cracking with both nails and skin near the nails in the winter, which by the way is at 81 degrees today! Yea!

Simon glad you shared, and the only nail biter should be the ending of "Fatal Attraction" - remember when Glenn Close boiled the family rabbit on their stove, and then came out of.... ( spoiler alert)
take care, and again very proud of you,
Dave Brosky "DBro"

DBro, Simon, good on you both!

This is a great story.....