I broke a nail this week.

“What’s the big deal?” you may be asking.

Well, classical guitarists (which I aspire to be someday) use the nails on their right hand to produce gorgeous tone. My teacher advocates going sans nails for the first year, so one can develop the fingers and then add in the nails later.

True to my stubborn nature, I was anti-nails anyway—just because. So, I was in no hurry to grow them out. And not that I’m a slave to fashion or anything, but I thought I’d look silly with my left hand nails super short and my right hand considerable longer.

Then I heard the sounds even I could produce with a little nail…and I was hooked. Even started something called the “Jello Project” to increase the strength of my nails.

The inevitable happened…I messed up my “a” finger (otherwise known as my ring finger) nail while weeding around our "yard." And then I started picking at it…and before I knew it, my nail was nubbin.

Honestly, it seemed unlikely to me that breaking a nail would really impact my playing.

Except it does. It’s just awful. Grow faster dear “a” nail, grow faster.