I've played the bowed psaltery for a couple decades, and have a soprano range one made by Two Sisters (now out of the instrument making business) and an alto one I built from a kit. I love this instrument, but it certainly is NOT to the taste of everyone & bad playing is intensified by the way it tends to carry a distance (and the very high range). I second the suggestion of listening older Trapezoid recordings with Lorraine Duisit playing the bowed psaltery. *

With pain in one hand an issue, how you hold the psaltery and how much it weighs may be an issue. My soprano one is quite light, while the alto is built like a tank, and needs a stand to be played easily. Since my first bow was shaped like a bow & arrows type bow, rather than a fiddle bow, I taught myself to play it with the bow held in the middle, making either side of the instrument equally accessible. It's a good instrument for slower tunes - you can only get so far so fast. It CAN be played at jig speed, BUT, the only folks I've seen do this do it with the psaltery on a stand, and use two very short bows, one in each hand. There you have the orchestration problem of not having the bows knock into each other in going up and down the instrument and side to side. I've only seen one guy, from the northwest coast of the US do a bang up job of reel & jig speed music on the bowed psaltery. I can play simpler waltzes and English Country Dance tunes on it. Folks joke about it being a "fiddle for autoharp players" and I fit that- though the psaltery came 5 years before the autoharp for me. For autoharp, it does help to have both hands fully functional. There's a difference between you CAN play an autoharp with the limitations and what will feel like FULLY playing an instrument to you.

Harmonica sounds just fine for dance music - our contradance band does lots of Irish and Scottish dance tunes, and harmonica players do well with them, with harmonicas in the various keys we use.

Another instrument you might be able to play that would make you more welcome than the bowed psaltery is a small harp. There is a style called a "Gypsy harp" that is small, and made to be held in one hand, and played with the other while walking. It LOOKS rather like a "lap harp," (and may be sold that way) but the front piece of the harp will have a protrusion a bit above midway to make it easier to hold. Playing just the melody on a harp, you can get the feel of all sorts of Celtic music, accompany yourself, LOOK like an impressive musician and not have strangers ready scream at the mere sight of your instrument.

I've a gypsy harp I've been thinking of selling on to someone who'd play it since I became so besotted with my concertina, and it never gets played anymore. PM me (CupOfTea) if you want to talk about this further. My own problems with carpal tunnel have me empathizing with both your limitations and your urge to play SOMETHING. Psaltery, harmonica or harp can all sound complete with one hand, as can playing the bones, if rhythm is in your blood.

Joanne in Cleveland

* Trapezoid's NOW AND THEN album has bowed psaltery on "Devra's Delight " & "Silverplume Waltz" John McCutcheon's WINTER SOLSTICE album has it on a few tracks - "Down in yon Forest" is the only one that comes to mind right now