| The Ocarina Arena of John Kowalchuk | ||
| I recently picked up a four-hole wooden ocarina (J.C. Hind "Jr.") at a fair and had to figure out the fingering on my own, quite an accomplishment for a brass player who never even played a recorder before. | ||
 My first attempt to construct my own ocarina based on the one I bought met with some success. |
 Then I made a whimsical long neck version just for fun. These are like a piccolo in "C". |
 Next came another "C" piccolo in cherry |
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These are made out of cherry. "C" Alto, an octave lower than the piccolos pictured above. |
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"G" Tenor. Here I used the semi-tone holes for the lowest note. They work but are hardly worth it. |
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A ceramic ocarina in "E". It measures 7.5 inches by 4 inches. A gift from my nephews. |
| An ocarina is
basically a closed ended whistle just like a referee might use except it has no pea inside and
holes to change the pitch. Most ocarinas currently available are either ceramic or molded plastic.
Having discovered families of ocarinas offered "C" and "G" and not being a recorder / ocarina / whistle / woodwind player of any kind prior to this effort, I chose to make mine in those keys. This makes it possible to use recorder ensemble music since the soprano is a fifth above the alto which is a fourth above the tenor which is a fifth above the bass thereby maintaining the same relationships as the recorder family only a fifth higher. |
| Recorder | Ocarina | |
| C F C F |
Soprano Alto (-5) Tenor (-4) Bass (-5) |
G C G C |
| Ocarinas can also be found in "A", "Bb" and sometimes "D". "F" would be useful to play
along with a recorder ensemble.
Once you figure out the black art of fipple making, that's the whistle part and something I am still struggling with, the rest is just a matter of experimentation to find pitches relating to cavity size. I've posted fingering charts for both four and eight-ten hole ocarinas. I had great difficulty in finding the fingering for latter and traced only a single source! It seems the "Sweet Potato" or "Budrio" pattern has all but disappeared while the four hole "English" style flourishes. The ocarina appears to be considered a folk instrument or toy and is only occaissionally brought into the light of day by someone with a serious interest. There exists an ensemble in Italy that plays some wonderful transcriptions of classical music. Other soloists have used the ocarina in folk recordings while others use it in meditative settings. |
| Fingering Charts | |
 4 Hole |
 8-10 Hole |
