6-Hole Ocarina
Overview
Our 6-Hole Ocarina series is for 6-hole pendant-style ocarinas.
What Is Included
Music in our 6-Hole Ocarina series includes:
- Melody in notation and tablature
- Lyrics if the original music includes words
- Chord symbols above the music
Required Skills
- Ability to read 6-hole ocarina tablature. Our ebooks include an explanation of how to read tablature. You will also benefit from the ability to read notation to help with the rhythms.
Difficulty Level
The difficulty level varies by the type of music. Most music is relatively easy, but some titles will be more difficult. For example, classical themes may include faster and more complex rhythms (e.g., triplets and 16th notes). The range of difficulty is generally easy to intermediate with occasional music above this level.
Chords
Chord symbols are included above the music. The chords may be simplified slightly to make it easy for guitarists, pianists, or other musicians to accompany you.
Music Notation and Tablature
The music notation and chord symbols are for a C ocarina. This is the most popular key for ocarinas. The tablature will still work for ocarinas in keys other than C as long as they use the standard fingering. You will just be playing in a different key than what is notated.
Tablature for ocarina is included below the music. The tablature is a visual representation of the ocarina that shows which holes to cover to play a given note. See the tablature explanation in the ebook for details about how to read it.
It's possible your ocarina has alternate fingerings for some notes. If your ocarina came with a note chart, you should compare it to the fingerings we use to see if you need to make adjustments to play the music.
Keys and Pitches
Keys are selected based on their suitability for an ocarina in C. The most frequently-used keys include C major, G major, F major and their relative minor keys.
Lyrics
We generally include one verse of lyrics within the music. Other lyrics are included as text at the end of the music. Some lyrics may be omitted, but this is usually done only when there are too many verses to easily include (e.g., songs that include dozens of verses).
Lyrics may vary from the version you know. A small number of songs include many variations in lyrics, none of which are standardized. It isn't always possible to create a version of these lyrics that is familiar to everyone.
Tempo
Tempos are editorial suggestions in most cases. Feel free to choose your own tempo.
Changes to the Music
Some songs have been altered slightly to allow them to fit on the 6-hole ocarina. This is only done if the change results in something that is still close enough to the original melody to be satisfying to play. Otherwise, many well-known songs would have to be omitted. The alternations are limited to changes that mostly preserve the character of the original music.
Changes may include the following:
- Transposing a note or passage up or down an octave.
- Changing a note that is out of range to a different note.
- Leaving a note out altogether
While some may find the changes disappointing, the only alternative is to not play some music on the 6-hole ocarina at all. We don't make alterations unless they can be done in a reasonably satisfying way. For example, we omitted Danny Boy from consideration because there was no reasonable way to alter the out of range notes. These notes are so important to the sound of this song they can't be changed to fit a 6-hole ocarina.
Changes are limited to a small percentage of songs. You can find which titles are altered by looking at the sheet music page for that title. There will be a footnote in the sheet music explaining the change. The About the Music on the page will mention that the music has been altered. Product pages for ebooks also include an asterisk next to any title that has been altered.