Tuesday 25 February 2014

Every ocarina is different and unique. There are so many of them of various shapes and colours, as well as the specific tunings (the note an ocarina starts on) - such as C, F, Bb, Eb, etc.

But the beauty of this instrument is that it's fully chromatic, which means though it may be tuned differently, it does not really have a specific key. Just like on the piano! So at the beginning, you don't really need to care if you have a G-, D- or F-ocarina - you can still play all your favourite tunes in C.

When you feel ready, you could play in the key your ocarina is tuned to, using its specific fingering system, as that will unlock the full potential of your instrument. You will even be having several versions of sheet music to fit the range of your ocarina better.

What can work amazingly for beginners is the Fingering Chart. Even though various ocarinas may be tuned differently, the charts will work all the same.

You can start with the basic C Major Fingering Chart above, which perfectly fits 4, 5 and 6-hole ocarinas. The only difference is that a 4-hole simply doesn't have the 2 highest notes - D and E, and a 5-hole won't have a high E.

Try to learn and memorize the finger combinations and then train your fingers to play the fingerings gracefully.

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I love your new sites. I am on Little Geese too, although they are mostly into transverse and consider our 6 hole as toys. I strongly disagree. It's what you do with it and how badly you want to learn. Also, if you learn to read music it's unlimited what one can play with the six hole and especially the compact double. Please see my link I have included. Oh, I also play Mozart, Beethoven and hope to put my newest song on my youtube, The Entertainer by Joplin. Oh, I did start with the little black dot method of learning, and still use those sometimes, I think it's a great way for someone to play one of these little instruments and not even be able to read music. My youtube site is: Kindanice4me
    Thanks!

    http://youtu.be/hhWJQ58TLdE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,

      Thank you for your lovely comment on my Oca Fun blog! I am so glad you liked it. Would you kindly follow the blog? I just started it, and don't have too many followers yet. So I will be happy to have such follower as you. :)

      You know you are such a talented lady! I watched your videos, and enjoyed your play. I also subscribed to your channel, so I expect to see some more performances from you soon! ;)

      And you actually inspired me to write another article that will follow this week!

      Delete

All comments are pre-moderated, so they may not appear straight away.