Italian guitarist Luca Stricagnoli is known internationally for his inventive use of the instrument and for creating a whole new kind of guitar — one with three necks.
It lets him serve as his own four-piece band, playing melodies, harmonies and bass lines on the three necks while adding percussion using a special ring and his arms to strike the body of the guitar.
He'll be performing at the Panida Theater in Sandpoint, Idaho, on Friday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. to open the Pend Oreille Arts Council’s newest season.
SPR’s Owen Henderson spoke with him ahead of his upcoming performance.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
OWEN HENDERSON: You started pretty early with your guitar playing. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got started as a kid? How did you know music and guitar were for you?
LUCA STRICAGNOLI: So I was a fan of music since like a super early age. I remember, I used to just sit for hours in front of the radio, the cassette player of my parents.
But when it comes to guitar, when I was about 10 years old, I saw somebody playing in the streets and then I asked my parents to get me a guitar and I just started playing non-stop and bringing the guitar in bed with me. My mama had a piano at home, and I never really touched the piano. So it was really the guitar that appealed to me.
I remember a friend of mine had shown me a video of Andy McKee specifically playing ‘Drifting’ — his original ‘Drifting.’ And I thought, ‘Hey, I didn't know you can play guitar like that. What is this called?’
And then I discovered fingerstyle and that's when I started playing guitar again after three years of quitting it for good. I was not playing when I discovered fingerstyle, and that got me to start again.
OH: And for people who don't know, can you describe how fingerstyle guitar playing is different than what most people think of when they think of someone playing a guitar?
LS: Yes. So, fingerstyle incorporates techniques such as percussion and tapping and stuff like that into the regular guitar playing.
So when you listen to classical guitar, as beautiful and as complicated as it is, you rarely hear any percussion. But fingerstyle guitar players use the instrument as if it's like a whole band, including drums.
OH: Which brings me to your creation and use of a, I believe, reverse triple neck guitar. How did you come to that idea?
LS: That happened step by step. Essentially, the first step for me was to figure that I wanted to imitate, a little bit, piano players — in the sense that when somebody plays a piano, his left hand does its own thing and his right hand does its own thing. So they're kind of independent.
On the guitar, normally, when you play the strings with the right hand, then you’ve got to press the frets with the left. So the hands are kind of working together.
And I'm like, ‘You know, I'm going to start playing on two different guitars so that my left hand does its own thing and my right hand does its own thing.’ And so that was the first step; I started playing on two guitars.
And then at some point I figured, ‘Hey, now I want to have a third neck that works differently than the others.’ And then I wanted to add that guitar as well. I figured, ‘Hey, maybe it's better if I ask a guitar maker to incorporate them all in one instrument.’ And that's how it went.
OH: For people who haven't seen it, can you kind of describe what it looks like for you to play this particular instrument?
LS: Yeah. In fact, it's really without seeing it, it's probably complicated, but the listeners can imagine this guitar with three necks. I play this guitar using, for example, also my elbow to play percussion on it.
And sometimes, my left hand is going to be on the first neck, and the right hand is going to be on the third neck. And then I switch.
And every neck has its different register. One plays high notes, one plays bass notes, and there's a constant change between the necks. And it sounds really fun.
OH: So what's next for you? You're on this tour. You've already experimented with using string bows on guitars. You play guitars with three necks. Are you going to invent another instrument? What else is on the horizon for you?
LS: I actually would love to keep expanding this idea of the reverse triple neck guitar because I found some things that could be slightly improved, and I would love now to create a new version of it with a few tweaks. So that's definitely going to be my next project. And in the meanwhile, of course, still try to keep improving on the regular guitar as well.
OH: Well, Luca Stricagnoli, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.
LS: Thank you so much. Thanks to you.
