Easy as...

Holding

Before you start to play, you’ll need to attach the triangle holder. Loop the string onto the open corner and pull the string onto the first closed corner you reach. Now, if you are right-handed, hold the triangle in your left hand with the open corner pointing leftwards.

Striking

As you are holding the triangle with the holder, you can now practise striking the instrument. As you would with a drum, you need to strike it with the beater and then return your hand to its original position –otherwise, it will not resonate.

Rolling

Once you have got the basic strike down, you can try the triangle roll. This is where you put the beater inside one of the closed corners of the triangle and quickly strike at either side.This will produce a jangling effect that recalls a drum roll.

Muting

Now, for the more rhythmic technique, you want to unloop the triangle holder and place the top corner of the triangle onto your left hand’s index finger. It should balance on that finger so that your left hand’s other fingers are able to move.

So, you have heard some famous uses of the triangle. It’s not time to pick up your own instrument and get playing yourself. At this point, you’ll see that it is not such a straightforward technique. Here, we are going to look at three techniques: the basic strike, the roll, and the muted bossa nova technique as heard in ‘Casa Forte’. 3 4