Hi Bill,

I'm close to your age. I may have some good news for you. You need to check out the following players.

Merle Travis...one of the greatest guitar players of all time never used barre chords...and he only used the thumb and first finger of his right hand (unlike your situation, he was right handed, as is most of the world).

Django Reinhardt...he too was one of the greatest guitar players that's ever been. As a young man, his left hand (once again, he was right handed) was injured in a fire. His third and fourth fingers of his left hand didn't work at all...he only had very limited use of them to fret the guitar neck.

If you do a Google search on Travis or Reinhardt, you will find out more about their playing styles. In the case of Travis, he chose not to use barre chords. In the case of Reinhardt, he was not able to. There are videos on the web of both of these guys...you will be amazed at both of them...Reinhardt in particular.

I take my inspiration from guys like these. I can make barre chords...but I try to avoid them as much as possible. Why? After many, many years of making them, the joint of my first finger where it joins the left hand is not what it used to be...I think I've done damage to it by using barre's so much and so I use barre chords only when there is no other way to play a certain musical passage. If use them sparingly, it is a manageable thing. The joint in question can exhibit periods of tenderness...it can become painful to make barre chords...that's why I use them sparingly...I don't know if it's arthritis or not...maybe...maybe the joint is simply worn out...but that's my situation.

There are other ways to play the guitar if you have some limitations. My own opinion is that a person has to re-think the way they have been going about what they've been doing and "re-engineer" it...find another way to go about it. One more thing, it seems to me that if the left hand has limitations...either self imposed or of necessity...the right hand will have to do things differently so that the overall result will be achieved.

Like you, I too like to play country...also blues, bluegrass, rock and jazz. I don't know if you like jazz or not but I have some material that might be helpful to you.

The way I make chords...for my own usage...is totally unorthodox by most all other standards. Just about everything I do musically is totally unorthodox by most of the rest of the worlds standards. Oh well...

One of the things that has allowed me to make chords a lot without using a barre is usage of the left-hand thumb "over the top" to fret the 6th string. Travis did this a lot. There are other tricks too.

I don't know if any of this stuff helps but I hope so. Let me know if it does.

Best wishes,

Bobby Howe