Touchstyle vs fingerstyle

[James]

I am looking forward to recieving Karl Mueller's used Warr Artist 12 quite soon :)

At the moment I prefer to play fingerstyle on the guitar. This requires long fingernails in the right hand. However, when it is time for me to do right-handed tapping this will present problems as the nails will get in the way

Is it possible to still keep both 'styles in practise, or do I have to abandon fingerstyle guitar if I want to tap strings? I guess I could start learning how to use a pick for guitar, but then you can't play more than one string at once. I find this more difficult as the single pick has to move to different strings, whereas your fingers are there on any four strings at a time

I know that some six-string tappists can use both styles (see Justin King's 'Knock on Wood' video) but this might be because the right hand is parallel to the fretboard as opposed to perpendicular or diagonally for touch guitars

[rjgoos]

As an old acoustic fingerpicker, to me, two-handed tapping is "fingerstyle the way it was supposed to be."

I was never able to keep good fingernails on my right hand, so keeping them short was never a problem.

I find that guitar playing and Stick playing are like riding a bicycle and playing basketball...apples and oranges. The skills must be stored in different parts of my brain.

But you will need to keep your fingernails short for tapping. If that degrades your fingerstyle, you might need to investigate finger picks of some sort.

Jay

[lemur821]

You can cut your nails down a lot more than you probably think you can. With good aim, they don't even need to reach the ends of your fingers. I found that out when I started playing bass, since I had to shorten my nails to avoid grazing the strings and making nasty sounds.