OcarinaWind 12 Hole Alto C Ceramic Ocarina – Forest Whisper | Straw-Fired Collectible with Protective EVA Case

This ocarina. THIS OCARINA. First of all, I've never held a more ergonomic ocarina. It's easy to settle into its use, and the pure, strong sound is downright addictive. It has a good weight to it, sturdy and stable, and it's almost too easy to play! Breath flows through it effortlessly, and the strong placement and shape of the holes makes settling into the notes easy even for an amateur like me. Artistically speaking, the ocarina is stunning. It has a matte finish, a far cry from the sharp gloss of your typical ceramic ocarina. There's nothing WRONG with glossy ocarinas, but the Forest Whisper brings something new to the table, with a sturdy balance of efficient, simplistic shape and a delicate flair. It's rustic but mystical. The whistling music and beautiful coloration makes it easy to believe, from afar, that the ocarina was sung from an ancient oak by some fantasy druid, and even up close, I'm struck by the fantastical imagery it evokes. The beaded necklace only adds to the charm. Once or twice. I've had the necklace come undone, so I VERY STRONGLY do not recommend letting it dangle there! That's what the pouch is for. This ocarina is heavy, and it will fall, and break, and you will cry a lot because it's so beautiful. But that's not what the necklace is for - it's to make sure if your hands slip, it doesn't fall and break and you don't cry. It's not intended to be a permanent, constant support, and it does the job it's meant to do (absorbing shock and preventing falls) very well. It's sturdy AND beautiful, and only adds to the strong fantastical aesthetic of the ocarina. The pouch is also very sturdy, with a strong but not bothersome velcro seal. The strap on the back is wide and strong, and it's never given me any trouble. It's the perfect size and shape for the ocarina, and is surprisingly lightweight (which is good, due to the ocarina's weight). I wear a lot of belt pouches, so I'm comfortable saying this is a good'un. I never have to settle for my plastic one if I want to play on the go! Overall, this is the best ocarina I own, and definitely my favorite. The Forest Whisper impresses on every front, from the effortlessly beautiful playing to the ancient, wild feel of the ocarina itself. I can't recommend it enough, for new and veteran players alike!

Love, love love this ocarina, very well made love the straw fire look , easy to hold and play ,good sound to it ,highly recommend, good value for the money.

Sound: excellent rich sound. Very clear "ringing" low notes, and very pleasant high pitch notes which do not have distortion. I can produce all the notes very clearly. The range is beyond one octave. I am an amateur in music, but I can easily figure out and produce standard do re mi fa sol la to do, plus 3 very high pitched notes on top of that. The thing that is a useful feature on the ocarina is that because of the design and large holes, you can easily produce the sharp and flat notes by covering half of the hole, similar to how it can be done on the piano with the black keys. Additionally, this Ocarina design has umvery useful small holes next to two big holes, one in each side of the Ocarina. You can cover them to get sharps or flats. Basically there are no issues with the sound this Ocarina makes. It is pretty excellent. Design: No visible flaws with the design. All holes easy to cover firmly. The holes are positioned in a way that is comfortable for the fingers. The outside appearance, color, finish, are just exceptionally impressive. People I showed this "Forest Whisper" ocarina to thought it was made from some kind of dark Cherry or Mahogany wood. The appearance is pretty much indistinguishable. At least it is the case with my individual Ocarina. Extra: the Ocarina came with a nice pouch. I personally don't intend to travel with the ocarina but it should be in some kind of soft bag, or preferably a box of you take it somewhere. For me this bag is very useful because it I intend to put it away for extended period of time I wouldn't want dust settling on it, or some scratches appearing on the outside. Another accessory that I found only two weeks later is a nice necklace string to attach to the ocarina. It's nice to see that it wasn't just a string. It has nice greenish beads on it. Only small issue is that it wasn't attached and it might be tricky to attach it the right away so the tin nylon cords don't self untie and cause the instrument to fall. Small Issue: there is one minor problem I found with the instrument coating which is that when you put a mouth to it you can smell the paint or laquer that it is covered it. I think it is just the paint. It does not smell too strong, nor does it really bother me, but it is noticeable and I guess some people may not like it. The coating/paint doesn't "bleed" or smear. The instrument has been baked and dried thoroughly. It's hits the smell. I would subtract half the star from the five stars but since it is not an option I'd rather leave it at five stars.

Mine just arrived and I am blown away. I don’t have much experience with wind instruments (much more so with stringed instruments.) so, while I cannot compare it to other ocarinas, I can say that it has a beautiful sound and is easy to start playing right away. Personally, I am going to recommend ocarinas (in general, but also this brand as it is not only very reasonably priced but also well tuned) to anybody looking to start playing instruments. Part of the sound vs. price, I’m assuming, has to do with it being a fundamental heavy helmholz resonater (overtones make for a rich sound, but construction becomes very important.) Another benefit is that without a rich harmonic spread, fundamental heavy instruments almost force you to focus on technique and timing. This will, in the long run, make you a more skilled musician. Also, it comes with a nice case and sheet music/ tablature (there is a fingering guide on top of the scales for every song included with the book.) An update: I apparently forgot to press submit on the review above, so, here are some added thoughts after owning this instrument for some time. I saw a number of reviews complaining of tuning relative to a fixed reference tuning. Number one, there are two smaller holes that you can cover if you extend your middle finger, also, varying the pressure you put on the two thumb holes varies the size of the resonant cavity enough to allow for fine tuning of the notes. Breathing technique may also allow for this but my focus there is still just trying to shape the notes. Number two, this is a much older type of instrument that was invented long before scordatura, fixed tunings, and orchestras. Instead of trying to keep pace with other people, find a quiet place and bare your soul.

Amazing ocarina beautiful sound just gotta learn to play it now, would definitely buy again! Thank you so much for this beautiful instrument!

Very impressed with this Ocarina. Just recently have I started playing this instrument, but I am familiar with the clarinet (somewhat of a background in music/musical theory), I got my very first one at the Renaissance festival for 60$ and it doesn't even come close in quality to the Forest Whisper. First of all its a great size for medium to large hands, and very comfortable to play. The tone has very crisp distinct high notes and warm soothing low notes. The look of it is breathtaking, each with its own unique burnt woodland grain look, medium shine with the smoke finish. All of the holes were finished giving it a very professional appearance even looking closely at it. It is reasonably lightweight easily held for hours. The smell is there for a short while being that it is smoked, but it does go away very quickly (which really wasn't an issue at all because the taste is good in my opinion but it is worth mention). It comes packaged nicely in a amazon bubble wrapped line package, then a cardboard case, and then inside the Velcro holster. At first going through some of the earlier reviews I was extremely skeptical about how this product was going to actually be, I also thought I shouldn't expect much being that It remains to be 30$. So I was blown out of the water to find that this was in fact a much higher standard and quality that I could have ever imagined. 100/100 Product

I recently purchased two OcarinaWind Ocarinas: First, the OcarinaWind® 12 Hole White Ocarina Exquisite Craft of Ice-crack,Recommend by Shop Owner, and second Forest Whisper 12 Hole Ocarina Classic Strawfire Masterpiece Collectible,alto C,recommended By Shop Owner. I thought I’d give you my evaluation of each in order to possibly help anyone trying to decide what to buy. I am an amateur musician, a long-time wind instrument player, but rather new to the ocarina. I chose the two ocarinas I bought because they were “recommended by Shop Owner.” I assumed that meant they were of the top quality that OcarinaWind had to offer. And the price was right. First I bought the Ice-Crack White ocarina. I thought it played very well. It is heavy and takes a bit of time to build up the finger muscles to play comfortably for long periods of time, but it doesn’t take long to get used to it. I now play it daily. I thought the sound was very pure, even the upper notes. You had to blow rather forcefully in the upper end of the scale, and rather softly around the low C and lower…making this a rather dynamic instrument. The ability to go from a high note to a low note, and play in tune, will take practice. But the tuning seemed good (once you adjusted your blowing pressure), which was very important to me. I had such success buying this ocarina I bought my second. My second ocarina was the Forest Whisper Strawfire ocarina. I have a very sensitive sense of smell, yet I did not detect much of an odor at all, unless I really put it right against my nose. Even then it was not too strong. I suppose how much of a smoky odor it has will depend on how recently it was made and what sort of ventilation it has been stored in since. This ocarina also had a very beautiful tone and I felt it was rather ergonomic, with the angled mouthpiece. My problem with this ocarina was that the tuning was off. I could not blow softly enough to get the sub notes to sound clearly and on pitch, and I could not blow strongly enough to get the notes around high C and above to sound in pitch; they were flat no matter what I did. So, both ocarinas sounded nice, both arrived in one piece with a nice storage/carrying pouch. In the end, I decided to return the Forest Whisper. If I could not play it on pitch, I knew it was just not going to be played. But I’m keeping the White ocarina, as it plays well. Naturally, each ocarina is somewhat unique. Will I buy more ocarinas? Most definitely. Will I buy more ocarinas from OcarinaWind? I don’t like returning things, so perhaps not. My admittedly limited experience with their ocarinas has me thinking that whether you get a great one or not is, in part, up to chance. The seller was very nice however, emailing me after each purchase to check my satisfaction level.

Beautifully handcrafted. I suggest handling it with great care and respect. First time owning a Ocarina, I look forward to learning how to play this beautiful wind pipe/flute. From playing around with it for a few moments the sounds are so pretty. This came packed with care, comes in a lovely and sturdy case with a cleaning cloth, the instructions booklet, and some kind of hand made necklace. It's a beautiful copper/brown color, I love it! I look forward to years of fun with this piece. Thanks Amazon for another great product.

Expongo mi comentario...debido al otro comentario que hay....he tenido esta ocarina varias veces en el carrito y luego la he eliminado.... Siempre cuando se lee algo que es negativo del producto una lo piensa....pero al final decidí adquirir y la verdad que uy e estoy encantada...sonido cristalino incluso en agudos pues cada ocarina tiene un manejo que cambia...pero no me ha costado nada...la he probado....escala....vibrato...la doy un aprobado...el color es hermoso...un tamaño también manejable...un poquito pesada...pero vamos feliz con la compra....yo si tengo que decir que la recomiendo... calidad buena y precio asequible... acompaño unas fotos donde se ve que es súper linda...tiene unos colores con contraste muy agradable....

Exactly what I ordered. All my expectations satisfied.

El sonido es hermoso, el acabado una obra de arte, espero que nunca se me caiga porque se rompe seguro... La cuidaré muy bien

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Zunächst mal die Ocarina spielt alle angegeben Töne (überprüft mit einer Stimm-App), aber ich als Anfänger tue mich ziemlich schwer. Ich habe allerdings keinen Vergleich wie das bei anderen Ocarinen ist. Das Muster der gelieferten Ocarina ist anders, als auf dem Bild. Ich denke das dies durch die Brandtechnik variiert. Kein Makel aber intressant zu wissen. Es gibt mit Sicherheit hochwertigere Ocarinen, allerdings bekommt man für den Preis ein ganz gutes Instrument. Mir mach es sehr viel Spaß darauf zu spielen weswegen ich auch die 5 Sterne vergebe. Nun zu den Anghängseln Die Tasche eigenet sich zur Aufbewahrung, ist aber kein absoluter Bruchschutz. Auserdem passt die Schlaufe nur für schmale Gürtel. Der Klett hällt allerdings sehr gut und man bekommt Ocarina und Leiderbuch darin unter. Die Kette zur Sicherung ist beim Spielen ist sehr praktisch (gibt einfach Sicherheit) und entspricht den Bildern. Die Schnur ist zwar dünn aber sehr stabiel. Am wenigsten zufrieden bin ich mit dem Liederbuch. Es gibt zwar eine kurze Erklärung zu Handhabung und Spielen der Ocarina (auf Englisch). Allerdings keine Erklärung wie man die Tabs im Buch liest. Mit Musikkentnissen und etwas recherche über Ocarinen kommt jedoch schnell zurecht. Zunächst werden verschiedenen Griftabellen vorgestellt, aber man brauch Hintergrundwissen um zu verstehen, dass sich die, auf die Ocarina, die man spielt, beziehen (C,F oder G). Auserdem war ich etwas verwirrt da die lateinischen Notennamen und nicht c,d,e... verwendet werden. Die Lieder selber sind in Nummern Tabs und in Griffbildern dargestellt. Wenn man nach den Bildern spielt sollte man darauf achten, dass diese für die eigene Ocarina gedacht sind. Das wir über dem Lied angegeben. Die meisten sind für C-Ocarinas, wie diese hier. Zum Üben kann man natürlich auch Lieder für F und G spielen.