Top 10 Ocarina Features – English Ocarinas
- Many ancient pre-Columbian vessel flutes have four holes and produce five notes.
Modern English Ocarinas also have four holes – these are precision designed to produce eleven notes. - The Ocarina’s round shape causes it to sound an octave lower than expected,
preventing it from producing upper harmonics and nasty high-pitched squeaks. - Ancient Ocarinas were made of stone, wood, clay, beeswax, shell, gourd and bone.
Modern ocarinas have also been made from porcelain, metal, cardboard, plastic and even vegetables! - Ocarina finger-holes can be positioned anywhere without changing the pitch.
The position of holes on tubular flutes is critical to their tuning. Ocarina finger-holes can be positioned where little or large fingers can easily reach. - English Ocarinas are made in purple, blue, green, red, orange and yellow plastic and aquamarine glazed ceramic.
Ocarinas have been made in black and white and most colours in between. - Ocarinas are some of the most portable instruments ever invented.
They were issued to American Servicemen during World War Two, along with equally portable harmonicas - Unlike Harmonicas, English Ocarinas are made to be worn round the neck.
Ancient Ocarinas were also worn in Latin America 2,000 years ago and the holes and loops for threading strings can still be seen today.
- A baby can make a perfect sound on an English Ocarina as no special embouchure or way of blowing is needed.
In fact, the more relaxed you are, the better the Oc® sounds. - Tuning slides and split finger-holes were invented in the 1870’s to improve the tuning of the Italian Ocarina.
These were first patented in England and France and later in Germany.
- In 2004, we added a lip-guard, raised rims around the finger-holes, and a finger-rest to our plastic rainbow Oc®.
These features make the Oc® even easier for absolutely anyone to play. Explore OcShop.
