Picking Dick - Posted - 03/29/2025:  06:34:53

I played Clawhammer a long time ago, but my fingernails just couldn’t take it. I tried all the usual fixes, but none of them helped, though Scotch Tape worked the best. So I gave up and switched to two finger which is all right, but last night I tried Clawhammer plucking up with my index, and it worked pretty well. What I want to know is does anyone else Clawhammer this way?

Rusty - Posted - 03/29/2025:  06:47:13

Why don't you use a clawhammer pick? And yes up plucking is a part of the old time style, look at Pete Seeger's Play the Banjo book, he covers most of the styles.

Picking Dick - Posted - 03/29/2025:  07:42:33

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rusty

Why don't you use a clawhammer pick? And yes up plucking is a part of the old time style, look at Pete Seeger's Play the Banjo book, he covers most of the styles.

---

Thanks, Rusty, I used picks on my thumb and index finger, but I'm not familiar with a Clawhammer pick.

Rusty - Posted - 03/29/2025:  08:25:01

Here is one example.
elderly.com/products/fred-kell...338625600

writerrad - Posted - 03/29/2025:  08:57:23

quote:

---

Originally posted by Picking Dick

I played Clawhammer a long time ago, but my fingernails just couldn’t take it. I tried all the usual fixes, but none of them helped, though Scotch Tape worked the best. So I gave up and switched to two finger which is all right, but last night I tried Clawhammer plucking up with my index, and it worked pretty well. What I want to know is does anyone else Clawhammer this way?

---

Plucking up with your fingers is NOT claw hammer, but if you sound good doing it, do it,

There are a variety of solutions for  the problem of fingernails and clawhammer.  One solution that I have followed for about 14 years is getting acryllic nails on the fingers that you down pick with.  Since I was introduced to this idea by the great Marc Johnson of Clawgrass fame in 2011it has worked pretty well for me.   I retired in 2010 and played a lot of clawhammer, and had started to use a very large tubaphone ringed banjo that a local luthier made special for a friend of mine, and my finger nails were worn down to nubs,  especially as I was doing a lot of frailing.  Marc came to our local bluegrass festival in Ft Lauderdale, and we talked and he explained this was what he did.   

As soon as I did that and mentioned that I was doing that to other banjoists I knew in South Florida, I found, that half the pickers I knew did it.   I have found this was pretty much true for a number of major clawhammer players I have met in the 15 years since in the US and Europe,  Get Hilaire's article

 Playing does wear down the nails and I have to go to a nail salon about every three weeks.  Google "Clawhammer Banjo and the Great Fingernail Dilemma " by Hilairie Burlhans on the  Oldtime Central site, that is the most comprehensive thing on it,

But upplucking isnt clawhammer.

There are also plastic pics of various types that you can put on your nails to protect them.  Of those, the ones that worked best for me before the acryllics were the freedom picks.

The great Joel Hooks , preisdent of the American Banjo Fraterity, also manufactures SS Stewart replica banjo thimbles according to the 19th century specs of Stewart himself.  Joel makes them, being a metal trades guy among so many other talents.  They were what people used in the 19th and early 20th centuries so much as what we call clawhammer was called "thimble playings"  by many in the 19th century.   This is al; right for the pure stroke style playing.  My own research is many Southern banjoists both African American and white used banjo thimbles in the early 20th century.  The great Rufus Kasey of Virginia told Kip Lornell in his interview on the digital library that he used a thimble into the 1960s, but loaned to someone who lost it and discovered music stores no longer sold them.

Plucking up is NOT clawhammer.  It is up picking and nice, but if you want to learn clawhammer to me acryllics are the best solution, though some do use these downpicking picks,

Edited by - writerrad on 03/29/2025 08:59:52

writerrad - Posted - 03/29/2025:  09:05:19

You can also just take the kind of metal finger pick that is used for finger picking guitars and banjos and   put them on backward so it covers your nail/  This works for some people, and it did kind of for me until I got acrylics. 

Acrylics is the best solution, although it might interfere with other things.

However.  I only got them after I retired.  I worked in the parts department of the Miami Transit system for 27 years, moving a lot metal bus parts, building shelving,  and  sometimes helping salvage parts out of damaged buses and engines.  Acrylic nails might not have been so good for that!  However, I can do a bunch of other practical stuff now that I have acrylics.  Nail salons seem to be familiar with the idea of musicians doing this, but it is good to go through the archives here and elsewhere online where people have posted pictures of what a good nail for clawhammer is like.   Most nail salons I have found whether here in Florida or even in Switzerland are staffed by Vietnamese people.  Bring a picture of what you want and it is easier.

Again once you do this and admit this you will find half the good clawhammer players you know say they also do this as happened to me including people I had picked with every week for years!

PLEASE LET US KNOW WHAT SOLUTION WORKS FOR YOU.   On this forum people ask questions and we chime in different ideas to various banjo problems, but it would be great if when the person asking came back and let us know what worked and what did not!

Edited by - writerrad on 03/29/2025 09:12:17

Bill Rogers - Posted - 03/29/2025:  11:16:07

I would say that if you’re up-picking, it’s by definition not clawhammer. Are you downstroking at all?

the-fish - Posted - 03/29/2025:  12:16:13

Nails are a topic I’ve often been amused with , I can just imagine those old timers , Galax guys, working men, farmers and whatever going on about acrylic nails etc, I’m sure some fashioned some sort of pick, best I’ve come across is a banjo thimble pick, don’t know if they are made any longer , otherwise I personally deal with it when my nail breaks

Culloden - Posted - 03/29/2025:  13:09:43

quote:

---

Originally posted by the-fish

Nails are a topic I’ve often been amused with , I can just imagine those old timers , Galax guys, working men, farmers and whatever going on about acrylic nails etc, I’m sure some fashioned some sort of pick, best I’ve come across is a banjo thimble pick, don’t know if they are made any longer , otherwise I personally deal with it when my nail breaks

---

I'm glad to see you mention farmers and working men. I wanted to make a comment about that but the last time I did I got torn to shreds by two members on here who wanted to critique every word I said.

the-fish - Posted - 03/29/2025:  13:13:58

Yeah
Main reason I stopped posting years ago is I seemed to offend without intention of doing so , kind of happened other week
Oh well

writerrad - Posted - 03/29/2025:  15:45:12

quote:Again, many people used  Banjo Thimbles into the 1960s.  Actually people I know who are banjoists in North Carolina tell me that the acryllic solution is so common up there that when a male enters a salon they know this must be a musician.  I should say that is not uncommon among other musicians especially classical, flamenco, and finger style jazz guitarists.

In my post above I point out Joel Hooks of the ABF who is a frequent contributor here manufactures out of the goodness of his heart geninue 19th century banjo thimbles of which I have owned several since around 2009.  They are good if you are doing the pure stroke style where the work is being done on one finger and with much of your work being done by brushing.  Before and after the acrylics I have used them when I have had to play dances/    They are a problem of working them to stay on your hands.

---

Originally posted by the-fish

Nails are a topic I’ve often been amused with , I can just imagine those old timers , Galax guys, working men, farmers and whatever going on about acrylic nails etc, I’m sure some fashioned some sort of pick, best I’ve come across is a banjo thimble pick, don’t know if they are made any longer , otherwise I personally deal with it when my nail breaks

---

Edited by - writerrad on 03/29/2025 15:45:52

writerrad - Posted - 03/29/2025:  15:49:49

quote:

These kind of comments are usually made by people who are neither farmers nor working men and dont know one if it bit them.Some of us don't have to "imagine" working people.  Culloden have you ever picked tobacco?

,  I did mention I worked in bus repair facilities for about 30 years and other industrial jobs, and they probably would not have worked out if I was doing that, but this is a solution a lot people who I know who are good clawhammer players do that solve that problem, include some nationally and internationally known players.

 

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Originally posted by Culloden

quote:

---

Originally posted by the-fish

Nails are a topic I’ve often been amused with , I can just imagine those old timers , Galax guys, working men, farmers and whatever going on about acrylic nails etc, I’m sure some fashioned some sort of pick, best I’ve come across is a banjo thimble pick, don’t know if they are made any longer , otherwise I personally deal with it when my nail breaks

---

I'm glad to see you mention farmers and working men. I wanted to make a comment about that but the last time I did I got torn to shreds by two members on here who wanted to critique every word I said.

---

Edited by - writerrad on 03/29/2025 15:54:17

Culloden - Posted - 03/29/2025:  16:35:21

Tony Thomas, I have never had to pick tobacco. I milked cows, pounded fence posts, strung barbed wire, worked in hay fields from dawn 'til dusk, and plowed with a team of horses. I also worked in a sawmill and a furniture factory at one time. Do not just arrogantly assume that I have never had to do hard work.
Kindly refrain from ever responding to one of my posts again.

the-fish - Posted - 03/29/2025:  17:30:59

Always one
Don’t care

Bill H - Posted - 03/30/2025:  11:40:59

I up pick the first note and then down pick. I disagree with those who say it's not claw hammer. Rhythmically identical, it is just a variation. I have been playing for many years and never have fingernails. Long nails are not needed. You will adapt to hitting the string with your short nail or get calluses. If your nails are breaking easily, try biotin, a supplement that make your nails stronger and grow faster.

Bill Rogers - Posted - 03/30/2025:  12:23:08

That’s pretty close to Seeger’s “basic strum.”

Picking Dick - Posted - 03/30/2025:  20:54:51

Yeah, Bill (both of you), I’ve been lookin’ through Pete Seeger’s book, and what he calls frailin’ is what I think I’m gonna do. I played a little of it tonight and it felt a little strange but alright. If I brush down with a fingerpick on my middle finger, it won’t bother my fingernails at all. I sure miss playin’ Clawhammer. Two Finger’s all right, but I prefer Clawhammer (frailing).

Thanks, all of you for your info and help.

pmiller510 - Posted - 04/03/2025:  08:59:20

Here are a couple of possible solutions. The first is a plastic one that I use. I shape and cut a regular plastic fingerpick off to my own specifications. The second is a metal one is from a posting on what Kyle Creed used (by someone who knew him I believe). Another fellow I know plays quite comfortably, and well, by simply reversing a metal fingerpick and bending it until it works for him.

Plastic Clawhammer Pick

Kyle Creed Pick

Kyle Creed Pick

 

Joe03 - Posted - 04/05/2025:  10:02:35

New to clawhammer coming from 2 finger myself. I use my middle finger but my nails are super soft, missing some kind of nutrient or something . I ordered a couple of the Fred Kelly picks. See how that works out.

Edited by - Joe03 on 04/05/2025 10:03:22

Dan Gellert - Posted - 04/08/2025:  11:30:11

I believe Pete Seeger called it the basic strum, because it was the way he first learned to play (from Samantha Bumgarner).
Most of us wouldn't call it "clawhammer", but Ralph Stanley did. He could play knockdown as well as that pluck-and-strum way, but seems to have thought of them as two versions of the same style.

jsinjin - Posted - 04/08/2025:  12:23:17

I code for a living and play banjo for fun. I never used to care about any of my nails but now I really complain when I break the slightly longer (either index or middle finger) nail on my right hand. I get a double note if the nail is too short and the tip of the finger pad bumps the string.



The other night my wife and I went to dinner and the young woman acting as the checkin person for the restaurant had nails that were curved and about 2 inches long. I had to ask her about them and my wife was annoyed with me because I always ask about things like that. I asked if they were real and if she could type. She thanked me for noticing them and said they are acrylic and that she can type with them and her day job was at a Dr office checking in patients and taking payment/insurance. I watched her for a sec and she really could use the long nails on a touchscreen quite adeptly. I think my clawhammer banjo percussive strike would have to be dramatically modified if my nails were that long. But I bet they would work well for strumming.



I also find that the more work I do outdoors especially rock climbing, the thicker and tougher my nails get although this comes at the cost of a tendency to get snagged.





In a previous career life I was at a medical school in Dallas and I read a clinical study that showed a measurable decrease in keratin (nail and hair) strength for people who have zinc and magnesium deficiencies. One way (not the only way but a crude method) you can tell is the appearance of white dots that show up when a nail is impacted. Zinc /Mg deficient people have a strong tendency to have those white spots which also show weaker and more brittle nails. Your keratin requires zinc and mg to form with strength. If your nails chip easily that could be part of the problem. You wouldn’t need a supplement, a handful of almonds and cashews daily should have more than enough for an adult if there is a minor deficiency in Zn or Mg.

Edited by - jsinjin on 04/08/2025 12:25:03

Owen - Posted - 04/08/2025:  13:44:17

Hold! The! Phone! 

It's onto a tangent, but my wife just cleaned/reorganized the kitchen drawers and what do I see on the counter??   An aluminum clip that in a previous incarnation clipped a candy thermometer to the edge of the pot [but the glass part seems to have gone to the big candy factory in the sky]. 

Some months back I got the notion to try clawhammer, so after looking at pics of Joel's I cobbled up one out of some thin-walled aluminum tubing I found laying about the shop. It worked well enough that it wasn't the "weak link."   But, the clip from the candy thermometer is thinner aluminum, and looks like it would be easily enough formed into a serviceable pick (?). 

I trust that y'all will be careful in/around the stampedes to the thrift stores.

 

Owen - Posted - 04/08/2025:  14:16:38

.... but I just remembered the aluminum does seem to produce some fine black "dust," so .......... ????

Spudwheat - Posted - 04/11/2025:  04:08:45

quote:

---

Originally posted by Picking Dick

I played Clawhammer a long time ago, but my fingernails just couldn’t take it. I tried all the usual fixes, but none of them helped, though Scotch Tape worked the best. So I gave up and switched to two finger which is all right, but last night I tried Clawhammer plucking up with my index, and it worked pretty well. What I want to know is does anyone else Clawhammer this way?

---

Not an expert, but I was using a glue-on nail. If you're not doing hard tasks with your hand, it works pretty well. Being on the index finger, I would lose them when I work on the farm. So, I got tired of putting them on. I play with a National brass pick put on backwards. I bent it sort of flat to cover my nail. I don't have any problems with it staying on. I wear it just above my index first knuckle, squeezed snugly. The pick feels pretty good to me. It has an old time ring to it. I never pluck up. I would imagine by pure physics, you're going to have to choose up or down, or wear two picks and use two fingers. Further advice: Never lend your favorite pick.

Good luck.

Picking Dick - Posted - 04/11/2025:  06:43:33

Thanks for your post, Spudwheat, but I’ve got a good enough fix . . . so far. I pick up with my index finger then brush down with my picked middle finger and then pick with my thumb.

I got it from a book by Dick Sheridan called Two Finger Banjo. He calls it Up Picking. I don’t do it exactly as he teaches though. One is supposed to pick up with the index, then brush down with it and pluck with the thumb. I use a pick on my middle finger similar to yours.

Someone insisted that it isn’t really Clawhammer, but it’s good enough for me, and I’ll just call it Up Pickin’.

I also tried flailing by simply picking up with my index finger instead of down and that, though also not “Clawhammer”, also works okay. Either way, I like it better than two finger, though I’ll still use that too.

Picking Dick - Posted - 04/11/2025:  07:46:01

In addition to my post above, I forgot to mention that “Up Picking” is also described in “How to play the 5-string Banjo” by Pete Seeger, though his is slightly different. So I’m satisfied with the new (to me) way and glad to have it.

5stringjim5 - Posted - 04/14/2025:  04:45:28

I just attended Dave Dillard's banjo camp in Nashville this past weekend. One rule I learned there, and after reading these posts, some will disagree, but the one rule is, there are no rules. Make it work is all. Yes, clawhammer is mostly down picking, but if you pick up to sneak a note in here and there, there's no harm really.

jsinjin - Posted - 04/14/2025:  05:02:27

Several times without realizing it I’ve “cheated” to hit notes on a song and up picked. I wasn’t even thinking and my teacher pointed it out to me and corrected it. I was actually glad she noticed it because I’m trying to play with clawhammer percussive and thumb style. But my nails seem tough enough although I notice when either my index or middle finger break. For me they have to be a certain length or that double bounce occurs. I’m sure nail care is a thing, it just isn’t for me beyond trimming them. I typically practice about 45 min to one hour per day but switch from index to middle finger about 50:50 during practice, I don’t have any thoughts about whether a style is “true” or not and everything about banjo seems to be “make it work for you”. I have never tried a pick. They seem like a pretty inexpensive investment to try but the nails work for me.

earworm - Posted - 04/14/2025:  05:16:34

Have you tried nylon strings? They're nice and easy on the nails.

Rusty - Posted - 04/14/2025:  05:57:52

One of my favorite banjo teaches gave some sound advice. When you start out, learn the basics of whatever style you are going for, get a good foundation, e.g, Scruggs, Mike Seeger, bluegrass, old time round peak…
Then go find your style, find your musical voice on the banjo, it’s called folk music for a reason, it evolves with folks.

Mad Hornet - Posted - 04/14/2025:  06:09:20

According to Ola Belle Reed's biography she incorporated up picking. She's one of my heroes.

writerrad - Posted - 04/14/2025:  06:23:31

quote:It is not up to you who can post or not post on this board.  You made a response to my post.  Anyone can post here who likes to,  If you do not like to debate with people because they disagree with you, especially when you say things  dont debate.  As  I posted I got the idea of doing the acryllics from Marc Johnson, who was an electrical worker in a big electric refinery in northern Florida where he met the whole Rice family (as in Tony Rice) that propelled him into music.  At the time I got to know him and he suggested this, he was the Emergency Services manager for the county he lives in in Florida.  That was abut 13 years ago, and I believe he retired from that just to do music a year or so ago.

If you don't like response peope make to your comments, the solution is not to make them.

---

Originally posted by Culloden

Tony Thomas, I have never had to pick tobacco. I milked cows, pounded fence posts, strung barbed wire, worked in hay fields from dawn 'til dusk, and plowed with a team of horses. I also worked in a sawmill and a furniture factory at one time. Do not just arrogantly assume that I have never had to do hard work.

Kindly refrain from ever responding to one of my posts again.

---

DickWeissman - Posted - 04/14/2025:  11:03:31

I've been playing banjo for quite a few years. For some reason my middle finger nail is prone to breaking, so I use the index finger nail to down pick 95% of the time. I'm not a doctor or a physicist, so i have no ideas why one n ail would be more apt to break then another one would.

Sometimes i pick two notes with the thumb, which Billy Faier called triple thumbing. In those istances, i do pick down with the middle finger. Why? It works better for me.

writerrad - Posted - 04/14/2025:  11:31:44

By and large the index finger seems to be the main finger most claw hammer or stroke style players use for down picking. Using the middle finger seems to be a recent development that you do not see in any of the old banjo methods, or descriptions of early banjoists. It is really a question of taste or choice.

I learned using index, but shortly thereafter became convinced by a person I now know was unbalanced mentally that middle finger was the true old time way--which it is not particularly. More recently with a little influence of Marc Johnson's Claw Grass, I have experimented with using multiple fingers. However, I am convinced the basic unity of claw hammer in a more or less traditional matter works best for me with the index.



Whatever works for you, as in most things, should be the rule!

Edited by - writerrad on 04/14/2025 11:33:30

whistlinghen - Posted - 04/15/2025:  03:43:24

When I played a lot of clawhammer style about fifty years ago, I had a National fingerpick that was basically flat on the picking side, and the bands were angled so that the pad of my finger wedged itself into them. I had it for MANY years, and when one of the tabs broke, I wired it back on and melted a bunch of solder on top of it to hold the wire in place. I eventually figured out how to bend and file a new fingerpick into a reasonable facsimile. About twenty years ago, I bought what was said to be a Kyle Creed-style pick, and though I never used it much, it was pretty well made. They'd used "German silver", and they'd managed to punch out a little "finger" about 3/8" from the tip, and it hooked back so it would go under the end of your fingernail.

Genetics also plays a part in fingernail strength-I've taken supplements for years, but still have very weak fingernails. While I never worked in farming, I did work in eldercare, and doing direct care long nails can not only be a hazard to those you're caring for, they're a real trap for germs.

Becks - Posted - 04/15/2025:  16:17:49

quote:

---

Originally posted by writerrad

quote:

---

Originally posted by Picking Dick

I played Clawhammer a long time ago, but my fingernails just couldn’t take it. I tried all the usual fixes, but none of them helped, though Scotch Tape worked the best. So I gave up and switched to two finger which is all right, but last night I tried Clawhammer plucking up with my index, and it worked pretty well. What I want to know is does anyone else Clawhammer this way?

---

Plucking up with your fingers is NOT claw hammer, but if you sound good doing it, do it,

There are a variety of solutions for  the problem of fingernails and clawhammer.  One solution that I have followed for about 14 years is getting acryllic nails on the fingers that you down pick with.  Since I was introduced to this idea by the great Marc Johnson of Clawgrass fame in 2011it has worked pretty well for me.   I retired in 2010 and played a lot of clawhammer, and had started to use a very large tubaphone ringed banjo that a local luthier made special for a friend of mine, and my finger nails were worn down to nubs,  especially as I was doing a lot of frailing.  Marc came to our local bluegrass festival in Ft Lauderdale, and we talked and he explained this was what he did.   

As soon as I did that and mentioned that I was doing that to other banjoists I knew in South Florida, I found, that half the pickers I knew did it.   I have found this was pretty much true for a number of major clawhammer players I have met in the 15 years since in the US and Europe,  Get Hilaire's article

 Playing does wear down the nails and I have to go to a nail salon about every three weeks.  Google "Clawhammer Banjo and the Great Fingernail Dilemma " by Hilairie Burlhans on the  Oldtime Central site, that is the most comprehensive thing on it,

But upplucking isnt clawhammer.

There are also plastic pics of various types that you can put on your nails to protect them.  Of those, the ones that worked best for me before the acryllics were the freedom picks.

The great Joel Hooks , preisdent of the American Banjo Fraterity, also manufactures SS Stewart replica banjo thimbles according to the 19th century specs of Stewart himself.  Joel makes them, being a metal trades guy among so many other talents.  They were what people used in the 19th and early 20th centuries so much as what we call clawhammer was called "thimble playings"  by many in the 19th century.   This is al; right for the pure stroke style playing.  My own research is many Southern banjoists both African American and white used banjo thimbles in the early 20th century.  The great Rufus Kasey of Virginia told Kip Lornell in his interview on the digital library that he used a thimble into the 1960s, but loaned to someone who lost it and discovered music stores no longer sold them.

Plucking up is NOT clawhammer.  It is up picking and nice, but if you want to learn clawhammer to me acryllics are the best solution, though some do use these downpicking picks,

---

Thanks for this information writerrad. Unfortunately the article you reference appears to no longer be posted, or the site is defunct. Maybe someone has another link?

---

I'm curious to know more about the acrylic nail. How is your feel with it compared to the bare nail? I use Joel Hooks' thimble and like it for many things but it's a little more difficult to control dynamics. My bare nail is good for about three days of playing. Then it will be thin and unusable for days.

Spudwheat - Posted - 04/15/2025:  17:12:04

quote:

---

Originally posted by Picking Dick

In addition to my post above, I forgot to mention that “Up Picking” is also described in “How to play the 5-string Banjo” by Pete Seeger, though his is slightly different. So I’m satisfied with the new (to me) way and glad to have it.

---

I really don't think there is a hard and fast standard on what is CH. It's pretty loose and many people, if not all, have their own spin on it. It's downright impolite to critique another's playing style by one's own standard. I think the best assessment by anyone listening is, "Do I like what I hear?" The second question would be, "Do I want my money back?" If the answer to the second question is, "But, I didn't pay anything," then one needs to keep their opinion to oneself. If one did pay, it is frowned upon to remove donated money from the busking hat. 

Edited by - Spudwheat on 04/15/2025 17:14:28

Spudwheat - Posted - 04/15/2025:  17:18:12

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rusty

One of my favorite banjo teaches gave some sound advice. When you start out, learn the basics of whatever style you are going for, get a good foundation, e.g, Scruggs, Mike Seeger, bluegrass, old time round peak…

Then go find your style, find your musical voice on the banjo, it’s called folk music for a reason, it evolves with folks.

---

Excellent advice, Rusty. I found that jumping around made it more difficult. The basics are the most important, jump around later. (You said it better). 

writerrad - Posted - 04/15/2025:  18:55:20

I have had acryllic Nails since March 2012 having met MarK Johnson when he was guest of honor at the South Florida Bluegrass festival in February 2012.  My life in the banjo since then has been much more massive than before then because I have been completely retired since March of 2010.    I have been getting the Acryllic since then and because I have been doing a lot more banjo playing since then than I did before, it is hard to compare.

Again I had been retired almost 2 years then.  I probably could not have done this doing the work I did most of my working life, the last 27 years as a parts man and warehouse person in Miami Dade County's main Bus repair facility with acrylic or for that matter long natural nails because all of the metal and other hard stuff I was interacting with, although a few things might have been easier to do, or I might have used leather gloves or welding gloves to do more things/.  

By the time I had met Marc I had almost no nails on my right hand/  At the time my main banjo was a large custom  tuba phone ringed banjo with heavy strings that a friend of mine had made special by a local luthier.   My nails got worn down to numbs and it was painful to play down picking which at the time I did more than finger picking,.

I ran into Marc Johnson and Emory Lester in the parking lot of the bluegrass festival just because among all the RB players, here were 2 guys sitting in a pickup truck and one of them was playing an open back banjo as opposed to an RB.  I went over to their truck and showed them my Enoch Tradesman, and started talking.  I had not actually heard he was going to be at the festival, just thought these were two guys who also played claw hammer!

Later Marc gave a class just on tips for banjo players in which he talked about getting his nails done among other practical things and showed us his own banjo autographed by Earl Scruggs himself.

Your nails are formally dead material with no nerves in them to transmit feeling to the rest of your body.  You can feel a little bit of what the nails, whether acrylic or human, do by pressing on the skin or flesh of your fingers under them, but no one can feel what a nail itself feels since nails are dead and have no nerves in them.  However, the acrylic nails do not break as much as the regular ones can.   The actual nail that they are attached to lower on your finger grows and pushes them out so they become too long except for Halloween playing a vampire purposes. and it can be hard to do things.   I end up going to the nail salon once every two or three weeks.  They will trim them and fill in the gap  that can grow between your actual nail and the acyllic. About once every other month they end up replacing them when they are too long.

At the height of the Covid epidemic all the nail salons in S Florida were closed for several weeks.  When they reopened the people running the salon I had been going to had a family split and the  side now e running it did not have a level of care and sanitation I thought appropriate,  For a while I took them off and mainly finger picked.  Luckily, I found there was another nail salon more hygenic and professional in the same mall.

Almost all nail salons are run by Vietnamese people.  Not just in Florida but where my wife has relatives we visit in Germany and in a Mall my friends who live near Lucerne Switzerland took me to.  It is good to have a picture of what you want the nail to look like to show them in case the language is not clear.  Do a search here on the hangout for nails or jut Google and you should find some.

It is not for everyone.  I certainly could not have managed it when I was working with bus parts and supplies.

writerrad - Posted - 04/16/2025:  12:16:56

quote:Becks  I have posted a message to you aboput getting a copy of it to you just check your BHO messages.   I will also contact the author and she if she can find a place to post it for the world.since the original site has taken it down!

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Originally posted by Becks

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Originally posted by writerrad

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Originally posted by Picking Dick

I played Clawhammer a long time ago, but my fingernails just couldn’t take it. I tried all the usual fixes, but none of them helped, though Scotch Tape worked the best. So I gave up and switched to two finger which is all right, but last night I tried Clawhammer plucking up with my index, and it worked pretty well. What I want to know is does anyone else Clawhammer this way?

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Plucking up with your fingers is NOT claw hammer, but if you sound good doing it, do it,

There are a variety of solutions for  the problem of fingernails and clawhammer.  One solution that I have followed for about 14 years is getting acryllic nails on the fingers that you down pick with.  Since I was introduced to this idea by the great Marc Johnson of Clawgrass fame in 2011it has worked pretty well for me.   I retired in 2010 and played a lot of clawhammer, and had started to use a very large tubaphone ringed banjo that a local luthier made special for a friend of mine, and my finger nails were worn down to nubs,  especially as I was doing a lot of frailing.  Marc came to our local bluegrass festival in Ft Lauderdale, and we talked and he explained this was what he did.   

As soon as I did that and mentioned that I was doing that to other banjoists I knew in South Florida, I found, that half the pickers I knew did it.   I have found this was pretty much true for a number of major clawhammer players I have met in the 15 years since in the US and Europe,  Get Hilaire's article

 Playing does wear down the nails and I have to go to a nail salon about every three weeks.  Google "Clawhammer Banjo and the Great Fingernail Dilemma " by Hilairie Burlhans on the  Oldtime Central site, that is the most comprehensive thing on it,

But upplucking isnt clawhammer.

There are also plastic pics of various types that you can put on your nails to protect them.  Of those, the ones that worked best for me before the acryllics were the freedom picks.

The great Joel Hooks , preisdent of the American Banjo Fraterity, also manufactures SS Stewart replica banjo thimbles according to the 19th century specs of Stewart himself.  Joel makes them, being a metal trades guy among so many other talents.  They were what people used in the 19th and early 20th centuries so much as what we call clawhammer was called "thimble playings"  by many in the 19th century.   This is al; right for the pure stroke style playing.  My own research is many Southern banjoists both African American and white used banjo thimbles in the early 20th century.  The great Rufus Kasey of Virginia told Kip Lornell in his interview on the digital library that he used a thimble into the 1960s, but loaned to someone who lost it and discovered music stores no longer sold them.

Plucking up is NOT clawhammer.  It is up picking and nice, but if you want to learn clawhammer to me acryllics are the best solution, though some do use these downpicking picks,

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Thanks for this information writerrad. Unfortunately the article you reference appears to no longer be posted, or the site is defunct. Maybe someone has another link?

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I'm curious to know more about the acrylic nail. How is your feel with it compared to the bare nail? I use Joel Hooks' thimble and like it for many things but it's a little more difficult to control dynamics. My bare nail is good for about three days of playing. Then it will be thin and unusable for days.

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writerrad - Posted - 04/16/2025:  14:00:21

Words are only useful if they describe something specific.  Clawhammer seems to be a term that is very recent in it use, say over the past 40 or 50 years.  No one can produce any use of the word as general as it has become in the 19th century by anyone, although some people may have used it.  In proper banjo history analysis the term down picking or down stroke is more useful.   Most definitions of clawhammer put it parallel with down picking and down stroking with particular stylistic departure that American old time black and white banjo players have created for it, as opposed to down picking styles that are recorded in the minstrel banjo or classic banjo descriptions of downstroking.

However, abolishing definitions is not useful.  When I first was trying to learn the banjo about 30 years ago, after about 30 or 40 years before that of playing guitar behind excellent clawhammer banjoists,  because I was lazy about dedicating myself to doing the strokes, I lazily figured out a way of up plucking and uppicking when I should be brushing since I had been finger picking the guitar since I was 14 or 15.  I am glad a senior banjoist in our area who has helped so many learn old time banjo invited me to his home sat me down and explained what frailing or clawhammer was and was not, at the same time telling me he liked my 2 finger playing, and told me to work purely on the clawhammer strokes every night for a month or two before trying a tune because I would do not clawhammer stuff to play up to speed on tunes since I had been playing many of the tunes for decades on the guitar.

Over the year since especially when I did research on traditional banjoists, particularly African American ones, I found this was common.  North Carolina Black fiddler Joe Thompson told me he had a brother Nate who played in the family band which their father and their uncle had.  He said when his brother as a kid was introduced to playing the banjo,  he was told to go out on the  porch with a banjo and just work on the stroke without chording the banjo for an hour each day and not try to play anything, just getting the down picking stroke right.

Particularly for a person who has played the guitar or finger style banjo, down picking or claw hammer can seem peculiar, because it comes from an African approach to instrument playing.  In the guitar finger picking you learn to coordinate the fingers but the more independent action to make the beat the fingers have from the thumb the better.   In proper clawhammer the hand works as a unit to produce the sound in a more coordinated way.   That exercise of practicing the stroke while  gripping a credit cart is a good one.  

Another thing that is a problem is people are not introduced to double thumbing or drop  thumbing early enough.  People learn the basic stroke or bump diddy and practice it too long before going on to the other strokes.   Trying each stroke slowly and bringing it up to speed or trying the alternate strokes earlier helps in the long run.

Thanks for being banjo people!

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Originally posted by Spudwheat

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Originally posted by Picking Dick

In addition to my post above, I forgot to mention that “Up Picking” is also described in “How to play the 5-string Banjo” by Pete Seeger, though his is slightly different. So I’m satisfied with the new (to me) way and glad to have it.

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I. It's pretty loose and many people, if not all, have their own spin on it. It's downright impolite to critique another's playing style by one's own standard. I think the best assessment by anyone listening is, "Do I like what I hear?" The second question would be, "Do I want my money back?" If the answer to the second question is, "But, I didn't pay anything," then one needs to keep their opinion to oneself. If one did pay, it is frowned upon to remove donated money from the busking hat. 

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J Hall - Posted - 05/04/2025:  02:08:52

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Originally posted by the-fish

Nails are a topic I’ve often been amused with , I can just imagine those old timers , Galax guys, working men, farmers and whatever going on about acrylic nails etc, I’m sure some fashioned some sort of pick, best I’ve come across is a banjo thimble pick, don’t know if they are made any longer , otherwise I personally deal with it when my nail breaks

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Nothing screams insecurity like imagining what a tough guy would do then living your life according to the rules of some daydreamed cowboy....

the-fish - Posted - 05/04/2025:  03:09:26

Nope I’m good
Not going there with todays world
You do you

wileypickett - Posted - 05/04/2025:  21:51:26

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Originally posted by writerrad

I have had acryllic Nails since March 2012 having met MarK Johnson when he was guest of honor at the South Florida Bluegrass festival in February 2012.  My life in the banjo since then has been much more massive than before then because I have been completely retired since March of 2010.    I have been getting the Acryllic since then and because I have been doing a lot more banjo playing since then than I did before, it is hard to compare.

I end up going to the nail salon once every two or three weeks.  They will trim them and fill in the gap  that can grow between your actual nail and the acrylic. About once every other month they end up replacing them when they are too long.

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+1 on acrylic nails. I've been doing the nail salon thing for some 15 or more years now -- every three weeks like clockwork.

Wish I'd discovered acrylic nails  40 years ago!

writerrad - Posted - 05/05/2025:  05:15:30

quote:I dont have to imagine "what a tough guy" does.  I worked for decades at working class industrial jobs mostly in repairing and servicing transit buses.  

I was advised to do this by Mark Johnson, who was emergency services manager for his county in central Florida, but was an electrical and chemical worker for decades before acquiring that position.   The funny thing is that once I started doing it about 2013, other banjoists I knew including farmers, retired military, and as well a professional musicians and rocket scientists  admitted this was what they do.

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Originally posted by J Hall

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Originally posted by the-fish

Nails are a topic I’ve often been amused with , I can just imagine those old timers , Galax guys, working men, farmers and whatever going on about acrylic nails etc, I’m sure some fashioned some sort of pick, best I’ve come across is a banjo thimble pick, don’t know if they are made any longer , otherwise I personally deal with it when my nail breaks

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Nothing screams insecurity like imagining what a tough guy would do then living your life according to the rules of some daydreamed cowboy....

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Spudwheat - Posted - 05/08/2025:  03:19:32

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Originally posted by Joe03

New to clawhammer coming from 2 finger myself. I use my middle finger but my nails are super soft, missing some kind of nutrient or something . I ordered a couple of the Fred Kelly picks. See how that works out.

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I find that drinking milk makes my nails harder. That being said, in the dry climate that I live in, my nails are undependably brittle. I use a brass National pick that I have flattened some. I wear it backwards. It works pretty good and sounds old school.

Spudwheat - Posted - 05/08/2025:  03:21:54

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Originally posted by wileypickett

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Originally posted by writerrad

I have had acryllic Nails since March 2012 having met MarK Johnson when he was guest of honor at the South Florida Bluegrass festival in February 2012.  My life in the banjo since then has been much more massive than before then because I have been completely retired since March of 2010.    I have been getting the Acryllic since then and because I have been doing a lot more banjo playing since then than I did before, it is hard to compare.

I end up going to the nail salon once every two or three weeks.  They will trim them and fill in the gap  that can grow between your actual nail and the acrylic. About once every other month they end up replacing them when they are too long.

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+1 on acrylic nails. I've been doing the nail salon thing for some 15 or more years now -- every three weeks like clockwork.

Wish I'd discovered acrylic nails  40 years ago!

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They should have a punch card... Buy 10, get one free. ;-)

Spudwheat - Posted - 05/08/2025:  06:24:29

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Originally posted by Picking Dick

Thanks for your post, Spudwheat, but I’ve got a good enough fix . . . so far. I pick up with my index finger then brush down with my picked middle finger and then pick with my thumb.



I got it from a book by Dick Sheridan called Two Finger Banjo. He calls it Up Picking. I don’t do it exactly as he teaches though. One is supposed to pick up with the index, then brush down with it and pluck with the thumb. I use a pick on my middle finger similar to yours.



Someone insisted that it isn’t really Clawhammer, but it’s good enough for me, and I’ll just call it Up Pickin’.



I also tried flailing by simply picking up with my index finger instead of down and that, though also not “Clawhammer”, also works okay. Either way, I like it better than two finger, though I’ll still use that too.

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Seems to me that in the world today, many people want to be an "expert". That can exist in many things where there is only one possible outcome (I was a math teacher), but when playing banjo, things are "loosy-goosy" with the "get-it-done" attitude. As long as the player knows what style they most identify with (so they can find help) that's all that matters. My banjo-playing is CH (based on the teachings of Lukas Pool), but my goal is to not get kicked out of places when I play. ;-)

More power to the picking!