As a primary school teacher, nothing thrills me more than teaching children to read. Reading is a great achievement and a vital lifelong skill. However, reading music can actually be a barrier to making music. How many class teachers can’t ‘read music’ and therefore assume they can’t help their class to play instruments? Singing is fine; playing an instrument involves reading music… or does it?

At a recent CPD event for primary music coordinators, a third of those attending could not read music and therefore did not feel confident enough to teach their children with whole-class instruments. After a two hour Ocarina session, they could all play the Ocarina fluently and, more importantly, had grown in confidence enough to consider teaching whole-classes (30 at a time!) to play the ocarina as well.

This is not a magic process: it mirrors evolution.

Before humans ever began to read and write messages with an alphabet, they deciphered and wrote with heiroglyphs and other pictorial languages. And before this, they learned to read each other’s movements, faces and non-verbal communications. So in all Ocarina teaching, we replicate this.

We begin by observing and then copying finger-movements and breathing. We then cover the Ocarina finger-holes by looking at and copying pictures of finger-positions. Once we can read and interpret these pictures, it’s easy to play tunes that are notated in this way in Play your Ocarina music books.

This method of reading and playing is the fastest and easiest that I know and is why children can read and play Ocarina music from the age of four. It is also why an adviser rang us excitedly to say she had seen whole classes of 5 year olds, who had not yet learned to read, playing “Twinkle Twinkle” from Book 1 “Starting Off”. She noted how their eyes followed the charts from left to right, down the page, and how well they played the tune. She claimed that this was all “promoting reading-readiness”.

So don’t be put off if you can’t read music. You can read Ocarina music. And this will lead you and your children on rapidly to whatever level of music-playing and music-reading you may need. And older children with reading difficulties will find the charts easy to decipher and follow, giving them a break from the daily struggle of reading words, an island of success in the middle of a sea of frustration.

Of course, music reading is important. But not as important as you think in the first few years. Enjoy making sounds and playing tunes first. After all, how many of us could read before we were proficient at speaking and handling language? The language of music is aural first and written last!

In teaching whole-class keyboards, guitar and tin whistle with children aged 7 to 14, this ambition was pretty well realised, and the 15 guitars that I bought from Moore and Stanworth’s in Leicester in 1978 are still in use at Winstanley High School, hanging from the pegs where I first placed them 35 years ago (photo evidence can be provided!).

I first saw ocarinas in museums in Latin America, whilst backpacking from San Francisco to Tierra Del Fuego. After running out of money in Buenos Aires I started busking with ocarinas, tin whistles and a silver flute to earn the funds to fly home.

Through these experiences, I realised that in class, the ocarina could be by far the best instrument ever invented. I gave up teaching for a while to develop the English 4-hole ocarina and its music for use in school. That was 30 years ago.

So what is it like for me, a company director of Ocarina Workshop, to be invited to teach 4,000 people to play a musical instrument together in the Royal Albert Hall?

Well, in recent years, I’ve been teaching increasing numbers of first-time ocarina players in Primary Schools. Along with my wife and fellow director Christa, we’ve taught 500 Junior-aged children at a time to play ocarinas from scratch and make a good sound after only 50 minutes.

The impact of these sessions is phenomenal. Once a child realises they can play a musical instrument so easily, they go on to even greater things. Comments like “I feel like I’m playing in an orchestra” and “I can play proper tunes” are frequently heard as children read the Ocarina Workshop music tablature and play a full octave of notes effortlessly in minutes. Rather than a ‘Tune a Day’, it can be more like a ‘Tune a Minute’ with the ocarina. And it will have to be like that at the Royal Albert Hall.

The challenge for me as teacher on the 5th November is to harness such a large group of children and adults of all ages and abilities to give a professional performance. Although we only have nine minutes to prepare on the night, the children on stage and in the audience have been working hard for weeks so our performance of “Ode to a Joyful New Star” should appear effortless. Parents have also been practising, using our online teaching resources, to give a good concert performance.

The challenge for me as company director has been to gain the sponsorship to allow all this to happen. Music for All is one of six sponsors who are helping us to start simply, with the ocarina, to create something massive, a world record and a generation of all-age musical instrument players who see how easy and enjoyable it is to make instrumental music together – playing, not just singing. We’d like to thank all who are supporting us in this Guinness World Records™ record attempt, which will raise substantial funds for Barnardo’s.

And the next challenge? The New Music National Curriculum for England requires all children aged 5 to 14 to play tuned musical instruments in whole-class music from September 2014. This is where I started in 1976. Ocarina Workshop is ready to equip schools and the music trade for ongoing musical, and business, successes in the coming years.

The principle is exemplified by the story of a team of American design engineers who were given a handful of tools, with a challenge that the jet aircraft they were designing must be repairable by an average mechanic in the field under combat conditions with only these tools. Hence, ‘stupid’ describes how things can go wrong, and the level of sophistication needed in fixing them.

In the primary classroom under ‘combat conditions’, the complexity of many instruments means they can easily ‘go wrong’ or require costly maintenance. Getting musical instruments out of their cases, tuning them, replacing strings, reeds and other removable parts, all complicate and delay the teaching process. As a result, instrumental teaching often seems to be out of the reach of many class teachers, remaining the sole preserve of highly trained visiting music specialists. The fact that Ocarinas have none of these complications makes them popular with primary school teachers.

Playing tuned musical instruments is usually a complex process for the learner because of the need to read music and develop fine breath- and motor-control. Even playing a Recorder needs subtle breath-control: over-blowing produces unwanted notes, harsh overtones and squeaks. The English 4-hole Ocarina produces a single, clear, tuned note for each unique fingering. When too strong a breath is used, the Ocarina cuts out. So less controlled players participate silently until they have the self-control needed to make a pleasant sound. A one-year-old can produce a clear sound on an Ocarina with nothing more than a natural breath.

Another complication with Recorders and most wind instruments is the need to use the third finger of the non-dominant hand at an early stage. And confusion occurs as to which hand should be at the top: “There is no logical reason for playing with the left hand uppermost” (Bolton, 2014). The Ocarina’s four holes are side-by-side, so correct fingers are instinctively used. These first two fingers on each hand are coordinated in a baby from ten months. A two-year-old child normally has the coordination and breath control required to potentially play an Ocarina. The size of holes on the plastic Oc® determines the pitch; these can be fully covered, comfortably, by fingers of any size.

By the age of three, some children read Ocarina notation and play full-octave tunes. However, in referring to child development and pre-school attainment, it should be noted that the optimum age for starting whole-class Ocarina lessons is between six and twelve years. All-age resources make Ocarina playing suitable for teenagers and adults (Thacker, 2013). Rates of progress depend on the amount of time allocated, material tackled, starting age of the group and the expectations of the teacher. When playing English Ocarinas, Primary School children typically play nine or ten notes (an octave plus semitones) and full-octave tunes in the first few months. Public performances and playing in harmony are possible, and to be expected, at an early stage.

When comparing this with an average of just five notes played after a year of whole-class tuition on orchestral instruments, it is not surprising that Ocarina players are highly motivated. The keenness of boys towards the Ocarina is welcome, especially when many school musical instruments are known to be more appealing to girls. As Liz Thomas, at the time a Deputy Head and Ocarina teacher in Hackney, observed: “The adult approach to playing means boys want to play Ocarinas. They need ‘proper’ material and quick results…” (2013). Ocarinas are equally attractive to all.

Interest in ocarina playing with Brownies and Guides is matched by the achievements in Scouting of Beavers, who have gained their Musician 1 Badge (The Scout Association, 2014) through playing Ocarinas and talking about them (England, 2014).

Thomas goes on to point out the musical confidence gained through playing Ocarinas:

My children believe they can play an instrument and play it well. They know it’s accessible, so therefore any other instrument is accessible too. …One mother came in to school to say that since playing the Ocarina, her daughter’s violin playing had improved enormously. (2013)

Rapid progress and early success motivate Ocarina players to play other instruments as well. Transferable skills acquired through playing the Ocarina include: reading different forms of music, concentrating, counting, listening, breath-control, slurring, tonguing, double- and triple- tonguing, flutter-tonguing, caring for an instrument, using alternate- and trill-fingerings, playing in harmony, performing in public, playing solo, performing in ensembles including mixed instrumental groups, musicianship, and discovering that playing a musical instrument is, in a child’s words, ‘easy’.

Whilst specialist music teachers may be best positioned to develop the more advanced of these transferable skills, general class teachers can do much of the groundwork. Thomas also believes that these teachers should have no fear of teaching with Ocarinas:

Teachers who are not expert in something (e.g. music) understand how difficult it is to learn – they have greater empathy with the children and greater understanding of the building blocks needed to get from ‘A to Z’ than someone who themselves can’t remember life before ‘Q’. (Thomas, 2013)

The ‘Keep It Simple’ rationale also relates to Ocarina teaching materials. The simplicity of the English 4-hole fingering system and its visual representation (Liggins, 1992) means that anyone can read and play music, regardless of ability or previous musical experience. According to Early Years specialists, Ocarina tablature promotes reading-readiness; and Special Needs teachers

report children and teenagers with moderate learning difficulties or emotional and behavioral disorders playing successfully by following Ocarina finger-charts.

Whilst ‘Keep It Simple’ encourages inclusivity, it also promotes progress. Thus children play 80% of notes fluently on an Ocarina in the first few months and 100% of notes after a few years. They are soon free to explore the world of performing and composing, with a ready-to-go tool in their hands. In mastering the Ocarina, children quickly gain the whole view of the learning process. With other instruments, this process can take years – the ‘means’ of making music becoming their continual focus, rather than the ‘goals’ of performing, understanding, composing and playing.

Musical terms and notation become accessible to even the youngest of children (Liggins, 2014), using ocarina-specific teaching materials and books, as shown in this Ofsted Infant School report:

All the pupils in Year 2 learn to play the ocarina and are encouraged to perform in assemblies. This has a positive influence on the pupils’ attainment and means that, by the end of Year 2, they all read musical notation. At a lunchtime ocarina club Year 2 pupils were skilful, competent and confident performers. For example, after a short period of rehearsal they practised the tune, harmony and descant of the song ‘Kumbaya’ and then, divided into three groups, played these parts together. Pupils are given good opportunities to perform publicly through concerts and festivals. For example, a group of pupils participated in an ocarina festival in Kettering. (Ofsted, 2004: 24)

All the comments in this report refer to Ocarinas being taught using Ocarina Workshop teaching materials and methods. The 30-year development of UK-made English Ocarinas has been matched by 30 years of Ocarina music publishing and teacher training, so that every school can benefit from this simplest-of-all tuned musical instrument.

From September 2014, the English National Curriculum for Music expects all children aged 5 to 14 to play tuned musical instruments as part of normal whole-class lessons – “musically” and “with increasing accuracy, fluency, control and expression.” Children are also required to “use and understand staff and other musical notations” and “experiment with, create, select and combine sounds… improvise and compose” (Department for Education, 2013).

Experienced Primary teachers have said that the Ocarina is ‘made for’ the new music curriculum.

The evidence and examples presented show that high quality class music can be made with Ocarinas and also that Ocarina-playing is inclusive for children and for their teachers, many of whom would normally be reticent to teach instrumental lessons; that Ocarina-instruments are accessible as children play well, with minimal co-ordination – the finger-holes are easy to locate and cover fully due to raised rims, and a gentle breath produces a pleasing sound which blends well, in tune with other players, even in groups of beginners; that Ocarina-resources introduce children to a wide range of musical styles to listen to, play musically, and use as a launch for composition.

Excellent teachers produce excellent results; informed primary music specialist teachers produce some of the best examples of children’s Ocarina playing and this can be mirrored by general class teachers. The task of successful music partnerships is to “augment and support, rather than replace, the classroom music curriculum.” (Ofsted, 2012:1), and Ocarinas are listed as a “main instrument” for music hubs in England (Sharp and Sims. 2014: 21). Since Ocarinas are welcomed in so many schools, expert support and continuous professional development should be increasingly available to equip class teachers. Other countries are also encouraging active music making in lessons. For example, Creative Scotland (2014) states the aim: “To ensure that all school children have access to one year’s free music tuition by the time they reach Primary 6.” Instrumental playing is being given a vitally important place alongside singing in Primary classrooms worldwide.

The Creative Scotland Youth Music Initiative is supporting primary music specialists in modelling Ocarina lessons alongside class teachers, with a view to class teachers gradually taking over, thus providing ongoing sustainable instrumental teaching in each school. Ocarina Workshop supports this approach by equipping schools and providing teaching methods suitable for both specialist and general teachers. To this end, Ocarina Workshop is a National Champion for the BBC ‘Ten Pieces’ (BBC, 2014) preparing composing projects in support of all primary music curriculums.

There is some discussion over progress in the context of curriculum music. One teacher perceived progress: “in terms of complexity of the instrument learned; progression from one instrument to another, starting on ocarina, moving to recorder then clarinet.” (Todd, 2012: 25). Such misunderstandings of musical progress are common.

As has been shown in this report, the simpler the instrument (in the Ocarina’s case at least) the greater the complexity of music that may be played and composed. Examples have been reported of children playing orchestral instruments in Year 4 and ‘graduating’ to Ocarinas in Year 6, in order to explore a wider world of music and a higher level of performance. It should be noted that small-size versions of orchestral and other instruments retain the levels of complexity of their full-size counterparts, and that recent plastic versions offered to children are still innately complex when compared with the Ocarina and, due to their moving parts, less robust.

Many modern orchestral instruments acquired for playing ‘classical music’ in class would not be recognisable to the great Classical composers themselves, as wind instruments changed radically during the 19th century. However, the sound of 3,081 Ocarinas and the Grand Organ in the Royal Albert Hall expressed all the grandeur of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ and gave the children a real sense of playing in a great orchestra. This experience is replicated daily in classrooms around the world, an experience uniquely offered with Ocarinas.

My modern foreign language classes buzz with the sound of spoken German. Children confidently handle inflexion and vocabulary, ready to converse with a ‘sympathetic native speaker’ as required for GCSE oral. Visual stimuli – pictures, objects, actions – elicit words, questions, phrases, and even new grammatical structures; inhibitions are lost as students are immersed in an increasingly-familiar language.

Children are keen to learn language; they are also keen to play musical instruments. They want to make sounds, play tunes and discover the world of music. The English National Curriculum requires music-making with tuned musical instruments from the age of five upwards. What musical ‘conversations’ should we expect of children who learn to play instruments in these formative years?

THE FOUR-HOLE OCARINA

Our solution at Ocarina Workshop is the English four-hole ocarina. Since 1984, many thousands of 5- to 11-year-olds have learned to play a full octave and recognisable tunes, giving public performances from the start. How is this demonstration of innate musicianship made possible?

The instrument, specifically designed for young musicians and now in its new fourth generation, is known as the Oc®. Developed and manufactured in the UK by Ocarina Workshop, it is tuned for chromatic, musical playing. The 16 different ways of covering the Ocarina’s four finger-holes can be pictured in code, allowing even pre-readers to recognise each finger-pattern and play accurately-tuned notes. Staff notation, the written ‘target language’, gives musical direction whilst the ocarina charts facilitate fluent playing. Boys particularly enjoy cracking the Ocarina code. In 15 minutes, they play a full octave by covering combinations of the four holes. Cracking this visual code means that, when faced with a C sharp, G sharp or A sharp, they just cover the correct holes and play without further tuition. Observe a whole class performing chromatically in harmony within the first year.

Cracking the visual code means that, when faced with a C sharp, G sharp or A sharp, students just cover the correct holes and play without further tuition

FROM CODE TO NOTATION

And, when children are ready to know the names of the notes, count the rhythms and play solely from the stave, the new 1-2-3 Ocarina book teaches music-reading and ocarina-playing with a note-at-a-time approach. This method is being used with children aged 5 to 14, side-by-side with the established Play your Ocarina series. The ocarina’s unique fingering system makes playing in the keys of D, G and E major and B, A and E minor instantly attainable, along with pentatonic, modal, chromatic and whole-tone scales for composing and improvising.

UNLIMITED POTENTIAL

In 2004, children from several junior schools were invited to play in an ‘Ocarina Solo – Own Choice’ music festival class. They chose to play: Mexican Hat Dance, Now is the Month of Maying, Cradle Song, Gypsy Rover, Parsons’ Farewell, Flor de Santa Cruz, Can Can,

Greensleeves, In Dulci Jubilo and an extensive range of other pieces, all from our Play your Ocarina music books. Of these junior-age ocarina players, three went on to study at Music Conservatoires (violin, trumpet, french horn) and one is now principal trumpet with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Ocarina technique is open-ended and musical. Motivation gained through playing ‘real’ music to live audiences is key to children’s rapid progress and success.

In equipping pupils with an Ocarina and an immediate octave of notes, we are giving children a voice and something to say. Playing and teaching with English 4-hole Ocarinas is too simple for words, so music can be the dominant language in the classroom. And when English is already a second language for many pupils, this is welcome. After all, as the 2013 National Curriculum states, ‘Music is a universal language’.

First published in Music Teacher Magazine, February 2015

On 12th July 1887, Alberto Mezzetti received a letter from WIndsor Castle thanking him for the musical composition that he had “kindly sent” to the Crown Princess and the Princesses Victoria, Sophie and Margaret of Prussia. Sending his musical work to Windsor Castle and receiving such a letter of approval was quite a promotional coup. Placing Ocarinas in a War Zone was something else…

In 1902, Mezzetti received another letter of thanks, this time from Robert Baden-Powell, war hero and founder of the Scout Movement, for the “handsome case of Ocarinas which I have just received from Mafeking “. A polished casino experience starts with reliable navigation, appealing game categories, and offers that add extra excitement to each visit, giving every visit a more inviting rhythm. You can explore that atmosphere through zebra bingo, combining promotional appeal with a clean layout and plenty of gaming energy. Players can enjoy the added confidence of simple tools, varied games, and bonus options that support a more enjoyable routine. The Siege of Mafeking was a turning point in the Second Boer War, from which the keen amateur musician, Baden-Powell, had recently emerged as a national hero.

Mezzetti was an astute business man as well as an Ocarina performer, publisher and entrepreneur. He sold his brother’s Ocarinas around Britain for over thirty years. This “handsome case of Ocarinas” had either been sent as a gift of appreciation, or is an early example of product placement and celebrity endorsement; or possibly both!

And if product placement is nothing new, neither is Industrial espionage or patent wars.

For 21st century smartphones, see Apple v Samsung; for 19th century Ocarinas, see Mezzetti v Fiehn.

When Italian-born Mezzetti was selling hundreds of his Ocarinas in several sizes around the UK, the Austrian Heinrich Fiehn began selling tens of thousands of his factory-made Ocarinas in at least 28 sizes around the world. Fiehn was so prolific, he even became known as inventor of the Ocarina despite Mezzetti being one of the first group ever to make and play Ocarinas some twenty years earlier.

And how did Fiehn first discover the Ocarina? An army friend suggested he spy on performances of Mezzetti and his group in Vienna and make copies of their instruments. Within months, Fiehn had not only produced his first Austrian Ocarinas, he had registered a patent (1881) to rival Mezzetti’s own patent (1878) for the invention of the Ocarina tuning-slide. I wonder who invented and who copied?

So all these ‘business’ practices prove that there is nothing new under the sun.

And this little history just goes to prove that “all is fair in love and war… and Ocarina-making!”