Quote:
Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks
And of course there is Django Reinhart who completely lost (as I recall) 2 out of 5 fingers on the left hand.
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Not lost but badly burned his LH ring and pinky (along with over 50% of his body and legs, he refused to let them amputate his right leg). See the video linked in JohnPR's post above.
So my answer would be to ignore all other styles and dedicate your life to playing Gypsy Jazz
if it's good enough for Hank Marvin, Tommy Emmanual and John Jorgenson...
More seriously, use the width of your LH ring fingertip to your advantage and fret two strings simultaneously with it where possible (A shapes, E shapes, open C, open G, play D shape with a barre across the 1-3 strings so you don't need to use it etc). Django could use his damaged fingers to fret chords but many GJ chords involve deliberately muting certain strings, you can do the same with certain chords in more traditional guitar playing.