Sculptural ocarinas exist on a spectrum between being primarily instruments, and primarily art pieces. Unfortunately, differentiating between these falls entirely on you as the player, and understanding the factors that make an ocarina ergonomic, as well as the factors that make an ocarina work, is essential. Many ocarinas have one or two 'subholes', which are additional holes added to extend the playing range downwards. For example, an alto C ocarina with one subhole allows the B below the tonic to be played. These notes are considered a range extension, thus an alto C does not become an alto B when a subhole is added. The fingering system frequently requires one hole to be closed, while opening another at the same time. It is thus really easy to produce unintended 'chirps', if the holes are not opened / closed at exactly the same time. OcarinaWind’s “Forest Whisper” 12 hole ocarina is a ceramic instrument. It has an alto range of A to F. Plus, you can even play sharps and flats with this instrument. The size is great for a beginner and advanced ocarina player. But, it may be a little large for children. Maintaining a straight posture is easiest to do while standing, but If you do have to sit its best to sit on a rolled up towel or the edge of a chair. This allows the pelvis to tilt forwards and chest to open.

Ocarinas – Thomann UK

But please note that your user won't be able to play just any random notes. For instance, on your alto C ocarina, you will only be able to play from A4 to F6. This by itself is very limiting, as you cannot make use of lower or higher notes for effect. Ocarinas are made to sound in different pitch ranges to work around their limited range. Fingerings remain the same, but the sounded pitch is raised or lowered by one or more octaves.In scientific pitch notation, there is a difference: A4 has a frequency of 440Hz, A5 of 880Hz, A6 of 1760Hz. If you want a larger sounding range, id strongly reccomend getting a multichamber ocarina instead of a 12 hole, as they can extend the range of an ocarina working in harmoney with its limited physics: The 11 hole ocarina is a compromise between the 10 hole, and 12 hole designs. They have one subhole which can be placed on either the left or right hand. The following image shows it on the right. And the overall position of your right hand should be similar to shown below. The thumb in particular should be held straight and as horizontal as possible, as it supports most of the instrument's weight. Now, if you want to learn to play, I think the easiest is first to practice C major scale (Do, Re, Mi... or C, D, E...) starting from the low C.

How to Play the Ocarina : 8 Steps - Instructables How to Play the Ocarina : 8 Steps - Instructables

Some ocarina makers bypass these physical limitations by creating ocarinas that have two or three resonating chambers, each with their own windway and labium. There are two main systems that dictate how these additional chambers are tuned: the Asian system and the Pacchioni system. The Asian system maximizes range by beginning each chamber one semitone higher than the highest note of the previous chamber. The Pacchioni system instead focuses on smoothing the transition between chambers by overlapping their ranges slightly, thereby making it easier to play melodies that fall in that range. [14] Musical notation and tablature [ edit ]

Pure Ocarinas focuses on instruments with 10 or 11 holes, as we believe they make better musical instruments, with considerable benifits for a player: Within the Italian ocarina septet tradition a different system is used for naming ocarinas. This is based on the 'fixed Do' solfage system and numbers ocarinas sequentially starting from Do 1, a soprano at C6. Higher numbers indicate lower pitch: Adversi, Aldo (1963). L'ocarina di Budrio: Pubblicato in occasione del 1 centenario ed a cura del comitato per le manifestazioni budriesi (in Italian). Bongiovanni.