Fingers: They Bleed
 

So since I was a child I have had fissure eczema on my hands. For those of you who do not know what it is, my hands are incredibly dry and crack and bleed from everday use. When I hit puberty it went away and I was able to learn some basic guitar skills. Just enough to be able to sing while I strummed away to the basic structure of my favorite songs. Well when I was about 18 it came back. If I lotion my hands every day and wear gloves with lotion in them at night I can get them into shape and play guitar for a little while. When they are doing alright I can sometimes form my callouses back but then those callouses always split and fall off (brutal I know :P.) Point is I miss guitar but I just cant do it long enough to get practice in. I thought about learning something else like piano, but those are not only very expensive but also not very portable. Anyone have any suggestions for instruments that are less hard on the fingers than a guitar that I can still sing with while I play? Softer strings or no strings?

Saxaphone?

Piano/Keys seem to be right for you. They don't have to be any more expensive than a guitar. You can pick up a very decent used keyboard for around the 250 usd mark.

nylon string classical guitar.

you'll still need 'some' callouses if you want to play proper classical stuff. but if you just want a softer feeling guitar to strum out simple songs while you sing along this should fit the bill.

Or, you could do what SRV would do after playing all night and wearing the callouses off his finger tips, Use Super Glue. (Before they start to bleed).:p: