Pianist's manicure

Fabio!! This one is truly beautiful!

Mine are very short, but in some passages they can be heard. The hand changes position and inclination depending on the technical needs. Perhaps this never happened to Horowitz... because he has a very personal and particular position.

I have been eating them since I started playing the piano at 8 years old, so the problem doesn't arise for me. I had never bitten my nails before, but when I played they bothered me and I started biting them, which then became a habit. I think I have beautiful hands with long, tapered fingers, but the nails are terrible; they ruin everything and turn them into Uncle Tibia's. In reality, I am not one of those who bites them down to the fingertips until they bleed; I only bite the white part. I have tried everything to get rid of this onychophagia habit several times: I started with bitter nail polish... I ended up liking it, I had grown used to it by then, so I tried chili pepper but I only kept it on my fingers for a few hours, because at the first opportunity to rub my eyes I had to spend two hours with my eyes open under running water, an indescribable sensation. A few years ago I tried again by wrapping my fingers with cloth bandages and obviously I stopped biting them, but by then I was so used to playing with very short nails that I had poor tactile sensation of the key under the finger with a longer nail and I started biting them again. In short, I have lost hope now...

ah ah ...great Simone...
No Nancy ...I will tell you that I have listened to many greats with the classic sound of the
nail on the key, considered a good sign.
I am not sure about the fall of the fingers on the key.
Horowitz, on the other hand, has his very strange "horizontality". In fact, the more the fingers are held horizontal to the keys, the more one has the
impression of being in contact with the strings..
Arai, instead, is a 'zio tibia' [clunky/stiff]...they are part of the rhythm.
K332 Mozart recorded for Philips....ah ah...
Thank you for not making fun of me..

TheSimon wrote:

I have been biting them since I started playing the piano at 8 years old, so the problem doesn't arise for me. I had never bitten my nails before, ............

I can't really imagine Simone biting his nails. I have always thought that biting one's nails is a sign of insecurity, evidently it is not so.

Or hunger... because there is no time to eat lunch due to studying....ha ha ..

And why not? Not about everything, but there are aspects of my life where I feel very insecure. For example, when I have to make important choices... I think about it, rethink it, and overthink it before making a decision. I get paranoid, I don't sleep at night (it's not a figure of speech, it's the truth), I start considering all possible resolutions, all possibilities, all the pros and cons that might present themselves; often I even imagine worst-case scenarios (in the sense that I exacerbate negative considerations so as not to be caught off guard). However, it must be said that once I do choose, I do so with extreme awareness, I commit myself to the fullest, and it rarely happens that I fail completely.

Great Simone!!! He who knows more, doubts more!! So said a Dominican friar..

I don't consider myself someone who knows... That is the problem.

From the way you sound, I wouldn't say... it seems to me that you have cards to play.. or not?

I wouldn't know, certainly it is not up to me to say that...

For me it is.......YES!!! Hi hi

Our Simone is a great pianist, without a shadow of a doubt.

giovannip wrote:

On 19/1/2017 at 09:54, giovannip said:

Our Simone is a great pianist, without a shadow of a doubt.

If it bothers you, it might be useful to keep your nails slightly shorter, as you already do, or file them in a way that minimizes direct contact with the keys. Additionally, it is important to ensure that your hand and finger positioning is correct during playing: fingers should be curved and the fingertips, not the nails, should be what makes most contact with the keys.