"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message 
news:48a341dc@news.povray.org...
>
>  Actually I am looking for other people's experience on *good* ocarinas.

Here is the one I have ($55 USD) : www.stlocarina.com/wz1.html  I still only 
have one, but I'd like to try out the higher pitched instruments too.

>  My experience from two different (cheap) ocarinas is that in both of
> them it's very difficult to get to the notes on the higher octave. The
> more holes there are open, the more difficult it is to get a nice sound
> (or a sound at all). Yet with high-quality ocarinas it should be possible.

I can hit the high notes just fine, but the sound becomes more and more 
"airy" the higher I go.  I understand that this is fairly normal, but the 
more expensive "purple clay" ocarina's apparently mature with use, and sound 
much smoother over time.  Unfortunately, they're about 3 times the price of 
their standard clay counterparts.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the one that I have, but I have to wonder how 
much of the "airy-ness" of the high tones is a result of my inexperience, or 
if it's a result of the ocarina itself.  Perhaps (probably) some of both.

>  I'm interested in your experience with that ocarina of yours. What is
> the range that you can play effortlessly, without the sound breaking up?

I've been practicing a song by Sojiro called "Dream of Bhutan".  Sojiro is 
an ocarina god, so I can't even get close to sounding as good as he does, 
but after practicing the song for a couple weeks, I can probably play it 
well enough that it doesn't hurt people's ears, or maybe even well enough 
that people could enjoy listening.  It's hard to be objective.  The range of 
this song is, iirc, from D4 to D5 (I learned it by ear).  Hitting D5 without 
sounding awful (and loud) took some practice, but I can hit it reasonably 
well now.  I read somewhere that you should bend your head down toward your 
chest while playing high notes to make them sound a bit less airy.  That 
helps a little.

I don't have any trouble hitting D5 (or even F5), but the higher notes are 
definitely more airy, which makes me wonder if I should fork out the extra 
money for the higher quality ocarinas.  On the other hand, I'm not a 
professional, and wonder if the extra quality would be wasted on me.  That's 
my dilemma.

There are an abundance of videos on Youtube now.  docjazz4's video's are 
very informative.  For inspiration, you could search-out Sojiro's songs, if 
you like New Age music.  "Dream of Bhutan" is actually a pretty simple song, 
yet has a nice melody.  I got it off iTunes, which may or may not be 
available to you.  If you'd like, I could email you the mp3.

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