Best Fingernail Shapes and How to File the Nails for those Shapes

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Douglas Niedt is a successful concert and recording artist and highly respected master classical guitar teacher with 50 years of teaching experience. He is Associate Professor of Music (retired), at the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Fellow of the Henry W. Bloch School of Management—Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

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Best Fingernail Shapes and How to File the Nails for those Shapes

By Douglas Niedt

Copyright Douglas Niedt. All Rights Reserved.
This article may be reprinted, but please be considerate and give credit to Douglas Niedt.

NAIL SHAPE #1: Follow the contour of the fingertip

How to file the nail to follow the contour of the fingertip:

• Hold the file with one hand and place the fingernail against the file at about a 45-degree angle. Set the file straight onto the nail.
• Make short movements in both directions. Do not whisk or hack at it. Keep your hand steady and move the file.
• File until the nail is straight and flat on the file and about one millimeter longer than your intended final length. The nail will be straight across with a corner on each end.
• Round the two corners until instead of the straight shape, you have a nicely curved shape that follows the contour of your fingertip.

NAIL SHAPE #2: The Ramp Shape

You can solve many problems with irregular fingernails by using the ramp shape. The ramp shape may also produce a better tone for some players than the follow-the-contour-of-the-fingertip shape.

An important advantage of the ramp shape is that as the string ravels along the ramp, it pushes the string into the soundboard, producing a fuller, warmer tone.

How to file a nail into the ramp shape:

• For the standard ramp shape, file the left side of the nail so it is shorter and ramp up the nail length higher on the right side.
• Set the file on the left side of the fingernail. You will have to experiment with how steep to make the ramp. Try a slight to medium ramp. A very steep ramp usually produces an inferior tone.
• File until the ramp is flat. You will end up with a corner on the left and a corner on the right.
• File to round the two corners. You will now have a straight ramp with rounded corners. The nail will be shorter on the left side (the contact point or playing side of the nail) and longer on the right side (the release point).
• Some players prefer to round the corners a bit more to make the ramp curved instead of flat or straight.

Some players may want to ramp the nail in the opposite direction, especially those unconventional players who play on the right sides of their fingernails.

If your nail curvature is irregular with the high point of the arch off to the left or right, if you have a hook in the nail, or your nail is pretty flat with very little arch, the "follow the contour of the fingertip" shape may not work. The ramp shape may work better.

Contradictory Rules and Advice

You will hear a lot of contradictory advice about shaping your nails. Here are some of the conflicting "rules":

RULE #1:

• Description: File the nails in a rounded shape that follows the contour of the fingertip.
• Contradiction: Never file the nails following the contour of the fingertip.
• Explanation: Filing the nails in a rounded shape that follows the contour of the fingertip has been a guiding rule for a long time. This is the shape Segovia used. However, some maintain that the string releases from the nail too early if the nail follows the contour of the fingertip. Instead, they recommend a ramped shape to ensure the string releases right of center.

RULE #2:

• Description: File the nails in a ramp shape, starting short on the left side and ramping up the nail length higher on the right side.
• Contradiction: Filing the nails in the ramp shape is a bad idea. The ramp shape produces too much resistance to the nail. The rounded follow-the contour-of-the-fingertip shape is better.
• Explanation: : The ramp shape produces an excellent tone for many guitarists. Because the nail is longer on the right side, as the guitarist plucks the string, the longer nail pushes the string slightly into the soundboard as the nail releases the string, producing a fuller, warmer tone than other nail shapes.
  
  Also, if your nail curvature is irregular with the high point of the arch off to the left or right; if you have a hook in the nail or your nail is pretty flat with very little arch, the ramp shape can often solve these problems.
  
  Some detractors say the ramp produces too much resistance to the string or that the ramp should go in the opposite direction, long on the left and short on the right.

RULE #3:

• Description: If your nail is highly arched (looking straight at the front edge of the nail), use a more rounded nail shape.
• Contradiction: If your nail is highly arched (looking straight at the front edge of the nail), use a flatter nail shape.
• Explanation: Both could be true depending on the overall shape of the nail (rounded or ramp), nail length, and other factors.

RULE #4:

• Description: If the arch of your nail is relatively flat (looking straight at the front edge of the nail), use a flatter nail shape.
• Contradiction: If the arch of your nail is relatively flat (looking straight at the front edge of the nail), use a rounder nail shape.
• Explanation: Both could be true depending on the overall shape of the nail (rounded or ramp), nail length, and other factors.

RULE #5:

• Description: Round all corners of your fingernails.
• Contradiction: Leave a corner on each fingernail.
• Explanation: For some players, having a corner on the left side improves the flesh-nail contact with the string. For others, having a corner on the left side makes the nail get caught on the string. A player may find that one finger sounds better with corners and another without. For some players, a corner on the right side of the nail can be beneficial to its release. For others, it will produce a thin sound.

These rules come from various books and articles by very savvy guitarists. As you can see, every rule contradicts another rule. Although the rules contradict each other, you will find out what works for you by experimenting with ALL the methods of shaping the nails. It will take many months or even years, but testing all of them is the only way to find out which is best for you.

One rule that everyone agrees on is never to file a nail into a pointed shape. A pointy shape invariably produces a terrible, thin tone.

It is up to you to experiment, keep track of, and evaluate your results. You must find out what best suits your fingers, playing style, and repertoire. Decide what works best for you.