Hi Everyone,

I have only been playing for 6 months, and am new to GuitarTricks, and have a question for all of you:

I have heard alot about how short/fat/weak/weird fingers should not be a reason to impede guitar fretting ability as long as you identify those traits and compensate. My question, however, is about fingernails.

Of course I cut them as short as possible, but the "quick" underneath my nails is right up against the top of the nail which makes it rather difficult to get the nails very short without cutting into that skin (which then bleeds, and is so painful that I can't play until the nail grows back out a bit).

My index finger in particular is really pointy. So, the combination of pointy fingertip + inability to cut the nail very short makes it hard to fret with my index finger at an angle perpendicular to the fretboard. This often causes a poor index finger angle that touches + mutes adjacent strings.

Any tips or tricks on how to work that skin underneath the nail back over time so I can get my fingers more prependicular to the fretboard in order to stop obstructing other strings?

Thanks for any advice!

//Jeff