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.

PARTS OF THE CASTANETS

The main parts of the castanets are:

- The “shell” working as a loudspeaker.

- The “lips” which are beaten together to form the sound.

- The “cars” or the past which is joined by the strings.

- The “heart” or inner part of this instrument.

- There are two different tones when playing the instrument: The lowest is called “male” and the highest one “female”.

Watch it HERE

HOW TO HOLD AND PLAY THE TABALET

With this video, pupils will learn how to hold and play this instrument

(Watch a video about how to play this instrument HERE)

TABALET MATERIAL

The tabalet is madre of:

- Hollow trunk

- Wooden board

PARTS OF THE TABALET

The tabalet it’s a drum, which is usually played with two drumsticks.

It’s composed of a wooden cylinder (50cm high), wrapped in parchment which is tightened with strings and leather tants. This leather is taunted with strings and rings.

- Parchement

-Wooden cylinder

- Strings

- Drumsticks

( watch image)

HOW TO PLAY THE DOLÇAINA

With this video, the pupils will learn how this instrument is played.


Watch video HERE

PARTS

The cone tube has got three main parts:

- Pipe: It is the upper part, where the lead pipe and the pipe are fixed.

- Tube: It is the part between the lead pipe and the pipe.

- Bell: It’s the end of the instrument and works as a loudspeaker and has a hole on each

side.