Paul Chenoweth

I am not sure why I decided to do this. It may be simply the challenge to make an ocarina that plays a full octave with only four finger holes. Perhaps it is the frustration of carving out 8 to 12 holes and constantly fighting the airway in order to achieve a reasonable tone. Regardless, John Taylor’s English system for a 4 hole ocarina is the challenge I made for myself while taking some time off from the craziness of the office:

It will be a while before I am confident that I can play using this system. The permutations and combinations of fingering is quite an adjustment from what I learned as a second grader playing a song flute in one of dad’s music classes. There are a few tricks and tips that I need to pry from some of my ocarina building friends, but I am thrilled to better understand the magic of how 4 finger holes in a simple clay instrument can produce a full octave scale.