Affiliations

Postgraduate Researcher at the International Guitar Research Centre

Member of the Cambridge Cohort of Guitar Research

Current Research Areas:

• The history of playing guitar without fingernails (see nonailguitar.com)
• The life of the eccentric poet-guitarist John Roberts (1919-1995)
• The classic banjo, particularly in England

Papers:

An Alternative History of Guitar Playing: No-Nail Players in the Twentieth Century [Abstract]
GFA Symposium, Denver, June 2026

Pulp Friction: Discussions and Controversies Surrounding No-Nail Technique [Abstract]
IGRC Conference, Surrey, March 2026

‘The Number of Fools is Infinite!’ The Nail Question in the Nineteenth Century [Abstract]
19th Century Guitar Symposium, Innsbruck, January 2026

An Alternative History of Guitar Playing: No-Nail Players in the Twentieth Century [Abstract]
IGRC Conference, Festival Homenaje, Padua, September 2025

Articles:

Alternating Between Flesh and Nail: Is It Possible? (Soundboard, Vol. 52 No. 1, 2026) — subscribe/buy the issue here

Historical Evidence for Using the Right Hand Little Finger (nonailguitar.com)

Videos

Interview on The Life of Emilio Pujol (Ian Watt’s podcast Unwound)

Interview on 20th Century No-Nail Guitar (Unwound)

How to Alternate Between Flesh and Nail

A history of using the right-hand little finger on classical guitar

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