thumb grooves

[SCWGuqin]

I once brought this up a long time ago, and was dissatisfied with the responses for whatever reason.

I think that playing hard with the left-hand thumb will inevitably lead to shallow grooves in the nail where it contacts the string. (The string hitting roughly 50% nail and 50% flesh). These grooves are significant in that the resulting curvature of the nail forces the string into them under pressure. As such, the contact points become "fixed". I say "points" because as the nail grows, any grooves in it will move forward. A groove located in the first few millimeters from the nail root is ergonomically ideal, and as the groove moves forward it will need to be replaced with a new one. (Generally an unpleasant process).

For a long time I've worried that my practice of cultivating nail grooves is idiosyncratic and possibly "wrong". However I'm currently watching the LXT instructional VCD, and he actually suggests that possessing multiple nail grooves is beneficial. Given my 85% Mandarin comprehension, I don't think he ever SAYS grooves, but he does talk about "the process of the nail growing out" yielding multiple contact points.

Comments/testimonials?

[charliecharlieecho]

I've had the same experience and found that eventually I got a sort-of saw-tooth effect along the nail. It worked fine, especially when one of the peaks was at the outer end - it seemed to hook around the string for things like diaqi and qiaqi. I work on the principle that if a fingering produces a good sound it can't be far wrong, so it's good to know that LXT thinks along similar lines.

[Si]

yeah i asked my teacher if its possible to actualy go through the nail with heavy playing for a few weeks. She said no cos the nail will have grown.