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This may be a stupid question but I would like to know hard I should be depressing the strings and to what degree should I be developing calluses on my left hand. I have slight calluses developed but I have been told that I should be playing until there are cuts and blisters on my fingers to develope proper calluses! That does not sound like an enjoyable experience! I get sound when I depress the stings 95% of the time so I know I am pushing hard enough to sound the string.
That leads me to the right hand. I am mostly interested in finger picking at the moment. I have very soft nails and have had my right hand treated with a bio gel substance to make them hard and grow without breaking. It has helped but what I wanted to know is what length do you keep your nails on your right hand? Is there a certain shape they should be filed to?

Thanks

Hi mmcg
I've never heard of anyone going to the extreme of cuts and think this is bad advice.
The calouses on my left hand are at most 1mmm they just feel slightly numb when pressed with another nail just as you would get on your heel (foot).
As for nails Neil showed his on the last webinar so if that has been posted you could check it out, I don't use nails on right and have slight calouse's on fingers.
Neil's nails (tongue twister) are shaped- where the side of finger strikes the string the nail is shaped (cut) so it slides off finger onto the string, hard to describe.
Hope this helps, wait for more confirmation before cutting your fingers.
RicksPick

There are likely to be differences between individuals, but I never had cuts or blisters on my fingertips while working on getting callouses. For a number of days they were really sore and tingly. Then for a long time the skin would crack between the callused and non calloused parts of my fingertips, but nothing as bad as you describe.
As stated, Neil describes pretty well how he keeps his nails in the last webinar (the hi-res lesson videos show his nails really well), and I've adapted my nail shape to be more like his. At first, my nails were always breaking, but I shape them frequently with an emery board like Neil showed, and my nails seem to have gotten stronger now by keeping them longer and using them regularly. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this.
Mark