I have been learning a lot about songwriting and lyrics via some great books lately...and songs with chords and lyrics are in the works. But I can't play those yet because of the carpal tunnel in my left hand. And I can't just put away my guitar for weeks and weeks! I mean, maybe some people could...but I just need to put fingers to strings and I have a mostly good right hand since I had carpal tunnel surgery on that 12 years ago. So...curious as to what I can write or come up with only using my right hand?

I've been playing around with some instrumentals on my ukulele using just the open strings and wanted to start doing the same for the guitar. Someone in the YouTube Live Guitar Tricks lesson made the suggestion to me that I could tune my guitar to Open G and give it a new sound when I just play those open strings. Interesting! I never thought about alternate tunings.

Are there any other things I can/should be thinking about when coming up with these? I'm trying to get a feel for the emotion/mood and rhythm of the piece based on what I play. And this might even be a good way to start memorizing songs, too.... seeing that I'm the one writing them.

I may be quite limited right now and can't play much at all but when I think about all the things I could create without fretting, I feel like there's a lot of possibilities. Focus on what you CAN do, right? (Story of my life!)

Can anyone give me any pointers? Everyone on the forums is so helpful so I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

Also, do you know of any examples of songs like these? I have been looking but I'm not really finding what I'm looking for (no fretting).

Thank you!

Edited to Add: A night of searching YouTube has led to a few discoveries. I found some videos of others who can only play with their right hand. Some use percussive elements and practicing different rhythms, some flemenco type techniques, etc. And there's some hammer on's and pull off's you can do with just your right hand. And using a thumb pick, one can come up with some pretty solid playing. Open to any other suggestions or pointers, still. Thanks!