In this work we apply the discontinuous Galekin (dG) spectral element method on meshes made of simplicial elements for the approximation of the elastodynamics equation. Our approach combines the high accuracy of spectral methods, the geometrical flexibility of simplicial elements and the computational efficiency of dG methods. We analyze the dissipation, dispersion and stability properties of the resulting scheme, with a focus on the choice of different sets of basis functions. Finally, we apply the method on benchmark as well as realistic test cases.