11/21/2023 0 Comments Songbird ocarina of timeThat said, once you’ve figured out how the notation works, you’ll find you’re playing notes correctly (and hopefully in the right order). While I realize that this kind of sheet music is intended for an audience that already knows the songs by memory, I can only imagine how confusing it must be to beginners. I tried to learn to play Saria’s Song using the booklet’s notation, but the odd gaps in between the notes didn’t signify to me how long to hold a note. Because no tempo is set, the spacing between notes is not clear in the booklet. I found this frustrating while trying to read the music. However, that’s about all the notation provided – it’s up to the player to determine the tempo he or she likes best. Each note in the booklet is presented as an illustration of an ocarina with certain holes darkened, signifying finger placements. The songbook itself is full of music from the Zelda series, spanning generations from the intro theme to Ocarina of Time to music straight from Twilight Princess. If you’re just beginning to learn musical instruments, you’ll certainly be enticed by the song booklet that comes with the OoT Ocarina. As derogatory as this sounds, the song book is essentially dumbed-down sheet music, which makes it a great resource for beginners or the less musically-inclined. The less musical among us will find solace in the provided song booklet, which shows the player which holes to cover to play certain notes. When I reviewed Smule’s iPhone Ocarina application, I also didn’t use any of their online tutorials. That said, I’m a very musical person, and I usually learn how to play instruments by ear. The songbook, while full of information and music, became utterly useless to me everything was so straightforward that I could pick up how to play most songs by ear on my first try. I find that the above comparison is important – once that clicked, I no longer needed any instruction on how to play this ocarina. The end result of this combination? If you learned how to play a recorder when you were a little kid, and have the ability to rotate your thinking to playing a recorder sideways as a flute, then you’ll have absolutely no trouble picking up this instrument and playing any song you know. The ocarina, however, is held horizontally like a flute. I should point out why this layout is so easy to use – how can more holes be simpler? It took me a while to notice this – and in face it had to be pointed out to me – that the twelve-hole layout is very close to that of a standard recorder. With ten holes on its front, the new OoT Ocarina allows the player to own one hole per note and manipulate sharps and flats with ease using two smaller holes. I’m partial to the twelve-hole design over the four-hole design – I find using four holes to produce an entire scale of music is rather convoluted. The entire layout of this ocarina differs from its brethren, who only have four holes as opposed to twelve. However, I’m glad that arguably the most popular OoT-replica producing company has added the shiny golden rim to the mouthpiece, even if it gives me something to polish. That said, I do that for most shiny objects. The glaze makes this ocarina shinier than an Apple product I was constantly polishing it to get rid of fingerprints in order to keep the instrument looking nice and new. However, what I got was a rock-solid ceramic instrument that looked almost too beautiful to touch. I expected the ocarina to be lightweight, hence more fragile, and possibly slightly misshapen from the photos on their website. The entire instrument is hand-crafted, but is done so with excellent precision and skill. So, it’s safe to say that this is their most complete replica ever produced – and it looks the part. Songbird Ocarina’s previous replicas were simply blue transverse (or “sweet potato”) ocarinas with a Triforce painted onto the mouthpiece those also only had four holes. For the first time ever, the ocarina maker is putting out an instrument that actually replicates the Ocarina of Time, down to the golden ring on the mouthpiece, and to an extent the placement of the holes. The first thing to notice about Songbird Ocarina’s new replica is that it’s finally game-accurate. It’s difficult to find a spot to keep a glazed ceramic instrument. No case is provided, though some sort of free, simple holster would have been nice. The OoT Ocarina comes with two components: the ocarina itself, and a thin song booklet filled with information and special ocarina notation for a plethora of Zelda songs.
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