Monday, September 11, 2006

How to play castanets

Older Son, who works in Madrid, was in the airport lounge with Victoria Beckham on Friday. Apparently she is not as skinny as she looks.

OS and girlfriend travelled round Spain for their summer holiday and, knowing my fondness for percussion, brought me back some castanets. The only problem was that no-one knew how to play them.

Now I do. Courtesy of Flamencoshop.com

How to hold the castanets in Andalusian dance
The string fits either side of the knuckle of the thumb. Pull the knot tight over the thumb on the side away from the nail.

When playing allow the hands to curl inwards remaining relaxed. If you straighten the thumb, it will open the castanet to allow the fingers to strike a clean sharp sound!

(Note: in the north of Spain the castanets are held differently for the Jota.)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Younger Son has just come home from his Steve Irwin Tribute Day yesterday. I had been starting to worry that he may have been eaten by an alligator; I wasn't sure how seriously they were taking the tribute.

No comments: