Newbie

Welcome beaucoupfish.

and Hi All,

I'm a newbie, having signed up 2 months ago and am very pleased with Guitar Tricks.

However, I am experiencing some frustrations. I am 72 and have moderate to severe arthritis. For instance, I have a metal plate in my neck which fuses 5 vertebra and the 2nd and 3rd fingers of my left, fretting hand do not close to the fretboard in independent tracts, but tend to close to the fretboard at a single point or even close to cross each other.

Obviously playing chords is tough, and some days I think maybe impossible and guitar is not meant for me (I'm no Django Reinhardt who, as you probably know played with genius even after the 4th and 5th fingers of his left fretting hand were injured in a fire.)

...So, if there is anyone out there who has suggestions for compromised arthritic players, I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks,

Steve

Steve ,
Have you ever tried slide guitar? Maybe tuning your guitar in a open position and using a slide might be enjoyable for you. If not that try using lighter strings.
Jeff

I will second the tune to an open chord say open E then learn to play around that.

I just typed "open tuning" in the site search box and got "33 Results for: open tuning" To find the search box do not look for the word search, look for the magnifying glass looking icon top right, Favorites - History - Songs - From - Account - Logout ..magnifying glass. <-- click it

Seems like there has to be a few things you would enjoy learning out of 33 choices, offered by this site. The more you learn about it the more things will open up to you.