Shula,

If you're not a slide player there's always nylon, absolutely gorgeous sound, although most of these steel rail locomotive types probably think it's kind of Fem.

A very good, albeit odd, exercise for any guitarist is to spend a few minutes playing without using your thumb (really!). Possibly the single most common mistake is to squeeze the neck more than is necessary. If you spend a few minutes getting used to the minimum amount of pressure required, you can save yourself a lot of aches & pains. I sometimes try this in between tunes ( just a few notes or so ). Nobody likes to hear this, but scales are the ultimate exercise.

Frank I.T.S.