Tooth-and-nail

[vkioulaphides]

... well... maybe not quite tooth, just nail.

Being a string player all my life, I have always kept my nails short-- NO good, hearing the click-a-clack of your fingernails on the fingerboard! On the tiny mandolin, however, it is almost impossible to play those stratospheric notes, waaaaay up the neck, without "rolling" the fingertip towards the nail, and in fact some nail-to-string contact happens from time to time. No news there.

Yet I admittedly VERY rarely find myself up there, on the snow-capped peaks of the Alpine region. Au contraire, I am very frequently traversing the bread-and-butter, 1st/3rd/5th position routine, where clarity and consistency are a must. Soooooo... especially on my slender Roman, I "roll" the fingertip of the index finger fingernail-wards, so as to stop the string with the tippy-tippy-tip of the finger, on the first couple of frets. On occasion, I noticed that the string was stopped (partly, at least) by the nail itself-- for as short as I keep my nails. At first, I balked, berated myself for my sloppiness, and tried to prevent that sort of disreputable activity from repeating itself.

In time, however, I am becoming a bit more lenient with myself. The tone is certainly clear and firm, and sounds no different than, say, the next few frets upwards (where there is no nail-to-string contact). So I pose the question to you all: is it at all acceptable, that fingertip-PLUS-nail stopping of the string in the lowest couple of frets?

Curiously yours,

Victor

[Bob A]

I wouldn't be able to play up the neck, past about the 17th fret, at all without using a nail to fret the note. But I don't see the need for nails in lower positions. However, I am in no position to deny anyone whatever tool they feel they need to achieve their tonal goals.

[vkioulaphides]

Well... what causes the nail to come in contact with the string (such as in the case of the uppermost frets, as you say) is the almost PERFECTLY vertical angle the index finger in particular needs to form with the fingerboard. Said fingerboard being SO very narrow at the nut of Roman instruments, the finger needs to be correspondingly VERY-near-vertical, in order to play clearly and securely on the lowest fret. Ergo the contact with the nail... This strikes me as unorthodox (if not outright weird), hence my question to the mando-community.

Cheers,

Victor

[margora]

Victor, I think it is perfectly fine if, near the nut, your left hand index nail is touching the strings, i.e. your orientation is near vertical on the Emberger. No question that this will produce a very clear sound which is far better, obviously, than the opposite. In my case, I am playing on mandolin instruments (as you know) with much wider fingerboards but if my left hand orientation is as it should be, the nail on the index finger should be very close to touching.