Thursday, July 23, 2009

Moose's Occy attempt



So here's my last ocarina I made for a friend.....Unfortunately it didn't work quite right.
I'm not sure what the problem is.
Very likely it's the SH *soundhole* as is the usually problem with ocarina's but after playing with it and doing tiny adjustments I can get it just right. The higher notes are getting airy. It was in C and I was super happy about it but as I started tuning up the holes the higher got airy and I made changes to the SH which changed the fundamental pitch...it fixed the airiness for awhile but then tuning it more the holes again got airy..... So I don't know if I'll bother trying to fix it or just start over.
It's not a bad shape, a little fatter than I was shooting for though, I'll try putting a video up later maybe.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Cool!



Today while exploring some ocarina pages and forums I just happened to stumble upon a very interesting and explaining picture! It was labeled water whistle and thought...hmmm I wonder....
Sure enough this is what the lady on Canada must have been talking about!
This must be her Lergök, it definitely looks like the shape of one I saw pictured but interesting now to see it's insides, it shows why they put the water in and gives it a warbling effect! Awesome!
This picture was found on the yahoo ocarina club! Great place to get information, find help and advice and brainstorm! Great group of people!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Happy Canada Day Indeed!

Today was a lot of fun!
I went to a local pub with the wife and mother in law where the wife sang some songs and dueted with a couple friends. A few other friends brought out a guitar, a harmonica and the owner of the pub pulled out his fiddle! So sure enough, how could I resist taking out my ocarina and playing along! We played a few great tunes, a few I knew and a few celtic tunes I couldn't even imagine following but all in all it was a lot of fun!
A bunch of the people there didn't have a clue what I was playing but 2 actually did surprisingly. First was a guy who said the only reason he knew what it was is because it came up in a crossword puzzle so he looked it up and researched it a little bit.
The second person was a lady who said when she was a kid living in Sweden, her and all her friends used to have and play ocarinas shaped like birds. She called them by a different name, Lergök, which turns out is ocarina in Swedish. The most interesting thing is she said they would all pour water into them while they played! She wasn't sure exactly why it was that they did that but being younger and they all did it, it wasn't even a second thought for her. When I first started playing my ocarina I noticed her watching quite intently but didn't think much of it because you can often get stares when playing "Such an odd and unusual flute". Later on though, my friend asked me if he could see my ocarina and I obliged. He took it and gave it a shake, looked to the woman and said "Nope, dry! No water in here!" then told me to go talk to her.
She said she recognized the sound immediately "Wow, I know that sound! I haven't heard it in years!" she said was her first thought. So I had a good talk with her and her companion about playing and now making ocarinas and they were both impressed by my playing skills and getting into making them.

A very good day for my ocarinas and spreading the word!
Happy Canada day everyone!