So I'm back earlier! (but only for a few minutes) I sliced open my index finger with a leather carvers knife and while blood was shooting to the ceiling I kept thinking "No more music...Oh my God, that means no more job!" Took seven stiches in the finger and couldn't play a barre chord for about two years! Thank goodness I learned in an unorthodox way at the beginning which employs the thumb not only on the bass string but also the 5th. Believe me that got me through a lot over the next while. You know how Django couldn't really use his last two fingers? Well he learned a completely new style of playing but few of us have his genius so maybe there's another way. My suggestion would be to make sure you try not only D tuning but also G. Perhaps DADGAD. Just for variety sake, why not get a "Stevens bar" (a dobro bar) and try some playing on your lap. It's a lot of fun. You need a bit higher action to make it glide smoothly, but here's a way to do that. You need a metal rod about 3" long. (The kind that's in the cheap elastic capos works great) Take the elastic off and slide the rod under your strings up to just behind the 2nd fret. That'll raise the strings just a bit, and it makes your starting point the 2nd fret. Now tune to an open D chord. Here's the important part..put another capo (any kind) on the guitar just behind the second fret. Put it on fairly loosely..just tight enough to keep the now raised strings from buzzing. Put your MIDDLE finger in the groove of the Steven's bar with your thumb holding the right side and your other fingers lightly touching the strings to the left of the bar. Start sliding. Rev. Robert Wilkins, and "The Black Ace" played that way and they are two superb artists. Good luck my friend.