Piers Plowman, thanks for the wealth of suggestions. I suspect I will know my way around the guitar better before this is over: I almost never play out of first position unless using a capo.

Pause for universal jeers. I am a singer, mainly using the guitar for song accompaniment. I do some fingerpicking (without a pick of any kind -- I don't like objects to come between me and the strings). I play a little blues, but am weak on leads (not un-creative, just lazy about fixing them in place).

While I can read music, I generally prefer not to. Although I love to listen to Baroque music, I've never tried to play any of it -- I can sing many of the melodies though.

No squeezing motions allowed yet, except those that occur ordinarily in life. I'll see the supervising doc again on January 23.