# is it possible to play the piano with nails?



## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

A question for classical guitarists or anyone who has long nails. In the past I've tried but while I love the instrument my right hand seemed to say to me "no, you can't play both instruments, you have to choose". I'm curious to hear experiences and if there any trick to play the piano even with the annoying nails.


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## Guest (Sep 23, 2018)

I learnt piano for a short while, but my main instrument is guitar. Simply put, it is certainly not impossible to play both. My nails aren't _really_ long, so they rarely got in the way of technique. Usually my fingers were just a tiny bit flatter than usual and I'd be playing a bit more with the pads rather than the very tips of my fingers.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

norman bates said:


> I'm curious to hear experiences and if there any trick to play the piano even with the annoying nails.


Nail clippers. I think you have to choose. My ex-girfriend's mother, once upon a time a piano tutor, stopped playing and eventually sold her beautiful straight-strung upright because she wanted to have long nails. Something I found bizarre and foolish.

I watched her attempt to play and her fingers (actually the nail edges) slipped all over the keys.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

eugeneonagain said:


> Nail clippers. I think you have to choose.


Yep. I'm a court reporter, and though I knew women who do it, personally, I can't work my steno machine as accurately with unclipped nails.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

You can play piano with longer nails if you adopt a flatter hand approach and have enough reach. I found learning the violin hard with my nails, even though they are not long, I can't press a string at 90 degrees without my nail also getting in the way, especially to do a vibrato. I just don't have any fleshy fingertips.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I have to cut my finger nails on my left hand right down until there is no white part remaining. That's just about to where the nail is attached to the skin. My right hand finger nails are short but don't need to be that short.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

A number of pop/rock artists play guitar and keyboards (usually electronic piano) all the time. One great one was Glenn Frey of the Eagles.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

If you play everything like Horowitz did with his near flat hand technique, you could have very long nails, but in general I'd say it's preferable to have short nails. Besides, Horowitz didn't play everything like that, only when the music allowed it.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

DaveM said:


> A number of pop/rock artists play guitar and keyboards (usually electronic piano) all the time. One great one was Glenn Frey of the Eagles.


well of course, not all guitarists (especially pop rock guitarists) have nails. If one uses the pick or fingertips there's no problem obviously, but that also means that they can't do certain things on a guitar.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Might be easier with a hammer?


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Yes, I suggest a toffee hammer or one of those delicate little hammers used in jewellery-making.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I guess you could play simple pieces. In my case, I play the piano and cut my nails every three or four days since I can't stand it.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Playing a piano with nails ....


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Those are screws in the picture!


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

^^ Yes but it is not about the picture. I'm sure I can _hear _nails as well.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I find guitarists disgusting with all those nails... do they clean them? I would never shake hands with a guitarist, who knows what kind of stuff one may find in the lower surface of their nails...


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Pianos have hammers. I suppose they could have nails as well, if one prepares the instrument in Cage-like fashion but has run out of screws. Or, if one wants to create a "new music" piece, one might pound nails into the top or sides of the piano. Make sure to record the performance. I don't know how one might notate such!

As a somewhat guitarist I would never wish to pound nails into my guitars. But I do keep my left hand nails trimmed down moreso than my right hand, which is just slightly longer in the nail than the left hand. I never did appreciate those grossly long fingernails I sometimes see on classical players. Of course, long nails get in the way of farm/ranch work, too.


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## lextune (Nov 25, 2016)

> is it possible to play the piano with nails?


Possible? Yes. Advisable? No.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

In all seriousness try some rubber thimbles.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Your prayer has been answered. :tiphat:






Thelonious Monk could have played with long fingernails (minus the polish, lol). His fingers are mostly straight and perpendicular to the keyboard with a few knuckle-bends in the road, an example to us all. 






I forgot how good Monk sounded! What a charming angel... and some of his missed notes were part of it, always playing anything with the freshness and discovery of the first time. An eccentric genius!


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

aleazk said:


> I find guitarists disgusting with all those nails... do they clean them? I would never shake hands with a guitarist, who knows what kind of stuff one may find in the lower surface of their nails...



Hey, I hate my nails too


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Dan Ante said:


> In all seriousness try some rubber thimbles.


this could be an interesting idea, I wonder if there are thimbles made thinking to people with long nails who would like to play the piano.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Larkenfield said:


> Your prayer has been answered. :tiphat:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


after I've opened this thread I've looked on youtube if there were videos on this argument, so I've watched that first video yesterday... she plays quite well, altough I have the impression that she's playing not very difficult stuff. But it's good to see that at least it's possible (and no, I'm not thinking to become the next Liszt). 
I'm well aware of Monk, who's a musician I love, but again, technically he wasn't exactly Oscar Peterson , so I guess that it's possible to play with flat fingers but with limitations. Altough I remember that Mary Lou Williams said that she saw Monk playing virtuosistic stuff and that simply he decided to play the way he played.


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## Sun Junqing (Sep 26, 2018)

yes you can play the piano with feet arm leg body and tools etc


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I understand your dilemma. Since I started with piano I just keep my nails a little shorter now, but I still do classical finger picking on guitar. Maybe I'm a little more limited now dynamically on guitar, but it hasn't stopped me from playing and hasn't made that big of difference.


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

eugeneonagain said:


> Those are screws in the picture!


Spoilsport!

........


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

For several years I had to play piano with long fingernails when I was taking classical guitar lessons. It can be done but I don't recommend it. They will make your fingers slide around on the keys, or a nail will get stuck between keys when you play (annoying and painful). Also they make a loud clicking. All of this drove my piano teacher crazy. Once I started college I mostly put guitar away and focused a lot more on piano, so I cut my nails and it was far easier.


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