HOW TO HOLD AND PLAY CASTANETS

It is important to take into account that each “shell” is a different tone.

The “shell” with the higher sound must be played with your right hand and the one with the lowest sound in your left hand.

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Some recommendations

It is very important o place the strings around your thumbs properly (not too tight, otherwise, there wouldn’t be any sound).

The right castanet is played with our little ring, middle and index finger. Besides, we have to press our middle, ring and little fingers at the same time when playing the left castanet.

It is also important to know that we must start with the right castanet and end with the left one. To get a good rythm, we have to know that the sound of the castanets is based on 5 different combinations.

- CA-RRE-TI-LLA: This element is played with your right hand. You should try not to move your wrist much. CA-RRE-TI-LLA has four beats:

- CA- With your little finger.

- RRE- With your ring finger.

- TI- With your middle finger.

- LLA- With your index finger.

- Tan: It’s know as the beat with your left hand coming after CA-RRE-TI-LLA.