As you will quickly gather, I’m posting these quotations more for fun than anything else. That is, except for Pujol’s comment at the end, which I think is beautifully expressed (even if I disagree with the idea of nail and flesh being a ‘duality’). Read today, the historic debates over flesh vs. nails surely seem rather amusing. But they were important and often furiously contested at the time, and provide almost endless historic interest — or at least I think so!
‘Forty years after the fight between the supporters of the flesh stroke and those of the nail stroke, the waves of the bitter fight have calmed down to such an extent that one can write about it dispassionately. Ten years ago, people were afraid to broach the sensitive subject. It did not lead to a feud, but it still meant insulting the other side. … it was a bitter fight … primarily directed against the newer nail stroke.’1 — Otto Zykan, 1963
‘Never in my life have I heard a guitarist whose playing was supportable, if he played with the nails. The nails can produce but very few gradations in the quality of the sound: the piano passages can never be singing, nor the fortes sufficiently full. Their performance is, to mine, what the harpsichord was in comparison to the pianoforte—the piano passages were always jingling, and, in the fortes, the noise of the keys predominated over the sound of the wires.’2 — Fernando Sor, 1830
‘Speaking of playing with the fingertip or nail! It was a problem that twenty years ago still aroused the emotions of guitarists, sparked the most vicious feuds between the editors of guitar magazines, and fueled personal animosities to the point of ridiculousness. Everyone can do it however they like, but it has long been established through years of vivid experience (and this is quite clear) that the fingernail is the natural plectrum, indispensable for the carrying capacity of the tone, which is necessary when it comes to playing in public.’3 — Luise Walker, 1958
‘A few nights ago a young Andalusian guitarists gave a concert at the Ateneo. No one knows his real name — he must have called himself “Segovia” to get people’s attention. […] Why has this young man taken up the guitar? He is so far from understanding the blessed school of our beloved Tarrega! At first glance one can see that the position of his hands is very careless; if he does achieve speed and clarity in difficult passages it is due to a sort of fallible intuition, not because he applies the proper rules. Worst of all, dear Father: he played the strings with his fingernails!’4 — a letter from a (clearly jealous) student of Tarrega to Father Francisco Corell (also a student of Tarrega), c. 1913
‘… the pulp [flesh] school appears, nowadays, as the last square of defenders of an outdated tradition. So much heroism and talent could be put to better use. As for us, we cannot advise young people too strongly to turn away from it.’5 — Guitare et Musique editorial, 1956
‘[One gets a good sound] by plucking the string with the pulp [flesh] of the finger, avoiding especially plucking it with the nails, which only yields weak, acrid sounds; and it is therefore recommended that the nails should not be allowed to grow in imitation of the Italian peasants, or of some French masters with bad taste.’6 — Barthélemy Trille Labarre, c. 1780s
‘What matters in art is the spirit. Let us be glad, then, that the guitar should offer this duality of aspects [flesh or nail playing] which will allow each artist to realise his own work with sincerity and gather, through it, the just reward of his merits.’7 — Emilio Pujol, 1934
- Otto Zykan, ‘Der Nagelandschlag’, 6 Saiten, 46.3 (1963), pp. 1-5 (p. 1). ↩︎
- Ferdinand Sor, Method for the Spanish Guitar, trans. A Merrick (De Capo Press, 1971), p.17. ↩︎
- Luise Walker, ‘Lichter für den Übungsweg’, 6 Saiten, 28.4 (1958), pp. 1-5 (p. 3) ↩︎
- Andres Segovia, An autobiography of the years 1893-1920, trans. W. F. O’Brien (Marion Boyars, 1976), p. 72. ↩︎
- ‘Le problème de l’attaque’, Guitare, 10 (1956), p. 5. ↩︎
- Kenneth Sparr, ‘Barthélemy Trille Labarre: Professeur de Guitare et Compositeur, Élève d’Haydn’, Soundboard Scholar, 4.1 (2018), pp. 17-34 (p. 24). ↩︎
- Emilio Pujol, El dilema del sonido en la guitarra (Ricordi Americana, 1960), p. 58. ↩︎
No-Nail Guitar 
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