I think good players and makers of the ocarina will be coming out in the near future. However, a good-looking instrument is not necessarily a good instrument. Not restricting to ocarinas, a famous instrument has indeed a good appearance too. (Of course, it's OK as long as he can make good ocarinas.) I was surprised to know that he makes ocarinas without understanding even the basic of the ocarina. (The knowledge of acoustics and hydrodynamics might also help.)Īfter a while, I had a chance to talk with an ocarina maker. You can't make a good ocarina if you lack either of them. But you need the knowledge and skill of pottery, and more than that, the taste and knowledge of music. I started making an ocarina believing that there shouldn't be a secret for such a simple instrument. The makers who rejected me have published some of their 'secret'.) But they rejected to help me saying that it was a secret. While ago, when I tried to make my first ocarina, I asked a couple of ocarina makers for advice. That's why I didn't want to sell them until recently. Making a good ocarina is such a hard thing. The rest are almost same as rubbish as you see in the bucket in the photo above. There is only one ocarina which I think 'this is it'. It is the same case with the ocarinas I have at home. If you look at their reed cases, you will find a lot of reeds aligned in them, but they say there are only a few that they can use at a concert. It is a hard work for players of the clarinet, oboe, or bassoon to make their reeds, which enable the instruments to sound. But when it comes to the time when you want to express YOUR sound or music, you have to make the instrument yourself. If you think the ocarina you play now the best one, that's OK. I wasn't able to find any commercially available ocarina which made my ideal sound. If you look for the sound seriously, you have to make the instrument yourself. Professioanl musicians, whichever instrument they play, practice every day seeking for what is called 'their own sound' that emerges from inside of them.
What you are making is the 'sound', not a 'form' or a color. If you ask me, focusing on appearance of an ocarina or baking it at a high temperature is not a good idea.
Please write to me if you have questions. Amateurs can make and use an ocarina for themselves using this method. (The patent is not related to the basic principle of the ocarina. This means that no ocarina makers can produce an ocarina using this technology and that no one can play professionally an ocarina which was made using the method. I also applied for an international patent on it in 1998. I applied for a patent (not just a utility model right) on unique technology for finishing the ocarina surface in April 1997. I have taught others these things but I haven't been taught by anybody. All the theories and rules you find here and Q & A session were created by my long-term experience of flute playing and teaching.
#Ocarina tab maker how to#
I haven't been taught how to make an ocarina by anybody else, so I haven't been influenced by anybody. Making of an ocarina ocarina making method described here has been developed by myself.
Please use, although it is under edit.(It is Japanese.)