Hi,
Anyone tried playing a Ocarina, what are they like? can you get a tune out of them??
Thanks for any comments…
Tony Fletcher, Sheffield England.
They don’t tend to be too difficult to play, but there is a great variety. One major drawback of ocarinas is their limited range (there is no overblowing on these). The main types are:
TRADITIONAL: The sweet potato or Italian ocarina. These were extremely popular. They were featured in the movie musical Girl Crazy, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The fingering is straight forward, and fairly easy. Modern versions with a wider range are being made in Japan.
SOUTH AMERICAN: These come in various forms and fingering configurations. Some of these play well, but you are unlikely to find one tuned to standard pitch.
ENGLISH: A modern development, with four or five fingering holes. Song Stone is a well-known one. They are usually tuned to concert pitch, and have an octave or so range. They are a little more complicated to play, as they use a system of cross-fingering.
Besides these general groupings, Hind makes a line of wooden ocarinas. The standard ones have a whistle-like fingering system, whereas the smallest model uses the English fingering system. Their double ocarina is very popular.
Here is a recording I made some time back on ocarina.
I just purchased an inexpensive plastic ocarina because I wanted to experiment with them before buying more expensive ones. This plastic one is actually not so bad. I got it for $10 + $2 shipping. (Don’t know about UK shipping charges) from: http://www.clayz.com/bearpaw.html
I can play tunes on it but I’m mostly interested in the ocarina’s ability to make bird sounds. You hear these “haunting” bird sounds in some andean music.
-Joe
On 2002-11-22 17:48, Tony Fletcher UK wrote:
Hi,
Anyone tried playing a Ocarina, what are they like? can you get a tune out of them??
Thanks for any comments…
Tony Fletcher, Sheffield England.
Check out the Ocarinaclub Yahoo Group… A nice, friendly group of ocarina players and makers.
My daughter plays Ocarina. The instrument has become very popular because of the connection with the Zelda role-playing game. I’ve purchased two ocarinas for her from Songbird Ocarinas (http://www.songbirdocarina.com/). I recommend them highly. The instruments are very well made, not too expensive, have a lovely sound, and the customer service could not be better. You wouldn’t catch me dead playing one – it’s all I can do to figure out the whistle – but if I had the interest, Songbird would be my choice.
If you want another ocarina film example, try Road to Singapore with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. They did a whole song about the sweet potato piper. It’s quite a good movie in its own right, from a good series of them. Well, a few of them are good, anyway.