How to Shape Fingernails for Classical Guitar

A classical guitar is played exclusively with the fingers, making the shape of the fingernails critical in classical guitar. Classical guitarists also must know how to polish their nails and perform repairs. The following steps will show how to shape fingernails for classical guitar.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. File the nails with jeweler's sandpaper. It has a fine grit and is the method of choice for professional classical guitarists.

2. Shape the fingernails. A nail that is too pointed will produce a brittle sound as the point slides over the strings. Overly rounded nails will cause string noise because of the large amount of surface area coming into contact with the string. A nail that is cut straight across also will not produce a good tone because of the sharp corners.

3. Use a fingernail polishing board, available at any beauty supply store. One side of this board is a fine grain file and the other is used for buffing. Once the nails have been filed, the buffing surface can be used to produce a smooth, glassy surface.

4. Reinforce thin fingernails with ping pong balls. Many professional guitarists cut pieces of ping pong balls, shape them and glue them underneath the nails to improve the guitar's tone.

5. Repair nails with a standard press-on nail kit. Trim off the part of the nail that is broken, too thin or brittle and apply super glue on top of the nail. Press the artificial nail on top of the real one and shape it as desired.