Hi,

I play the castanets since a was a child, then stop for a few good years and lately treated myself with a new pair in a bigger size (proff. this time!)

There are different types of castanets. They can be wood or fibreglass. Mines are the second option but it all depends of which sound you want to achieve.

There is a very good method from Emma Maleras, well known around the world, in Germany this method is widely use.

the knot bit goes at the base of your thomb on the top of you hand no underneath. They have to be tight as this makes them sound better and help you to get the 'carretilla' sound easily.

You can try firs to play slow like an scale, with your right hand with your little finger and all the way up.

Castanets pairs are male and female. For right handed people the female goes on the right hand and the male on the left. You can see a little mark on the male (normally in most of the semi or proffessional models, not sure if the souvenirs have this) This makes your life easier so you where each castanet goes.

The sound of the castanets is normally described as TA-RRI-PI, TA is the sound of the left hand with the two middle fingers, RRI is the sound of the right hand playing with the four fingers starting from the little finger, and the last sound PI is the sound of the two middle fingers with your right hand.

If you are left handed you have to change this and use the male castanet in your right hand and the female on your left.

This should be much easier to explain if I could demostrate!

I hope this helps. I also read somewhere about the origin of the castanets and although they are very old and link to the Egyptians, others believe that they come from Greece.

Good luck with your learning!

Ana