DEL NORTE—Wildwood Sounds, 850 Grande Ave., Del Norte, presents Andreas Kapsalis, Ten Finger Tapping Guitar P, on Sunday, March 19, at 7 p.m. Cost is $15. Call 657-4757 or see wildwoodsounds.com.

This is a sweets and snacks potluck. Bring a favorite healthy snack to share. Coffee and tea are on the house.  

When Andreas Kapsalis began teaching himself to play guitar at age 11, he was captivated by heavy metal band ACDC and other riff-oriented guitar bands.

His original music is also influenced by a variety of ethnic folk traditions, flamenco, Americana, blues and rock and roll. But, what really stands out about Kapsalis’ music is his unique style of playing – using both hands on the fret board in a style reminiscent of a pianist.

After he cut a tendon in his left hand, Kapsalis lost the ability to play guitar. He eventually regained the use of his hand, but during the time he was incapacitated, he trained himself to play the guitar using only his right hand. When he started to play again with both hands, Kapsalis developed a unique technique he calls “10-finger tapping.”

“It’s a technique where you use both the hands on the fret board, kind of like a piano, so I can do a lot of different harmonies, a lot of different chords. I can play melody, bass and rhythm all at the same time, because I’m using all 10 fingers of both hands, versus the typical style of playing where you form shapes with one hand and play that same shape with the other hand. You can do two shapes at once and play multiple things that way, it’s almost like you can sound like two or three guitar players … I can play percussion and drum beats with one hand and play melody and chords with the other hand,” he said.

Kapsalis is 100 percent Greek-American. His grandparents immigrated to the United States from Greece. He grew up listening to Greek music and sometimes incorporates it into his own compositions. In a broader sense, Kapsalis says his ethnicity has influenced his approach to music because it has made him more open to different styles of music. While he did write a song called Arcadian Blues that draws from American blues music and the folk music of Arcadia, the region in Greece where his family originated, Kapsalis says he does not write Greek folk music. He combines music styles found around the world, choosing those that embody the emotional quality he is seeking to communicate.

“I don’t play Greek folk music, I draw from it as much as I draw from American surf rock, as much as I draw from Delta blues or any Eastern European folk or even Indian ragas.”