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Music Appreciation 101:8 - It's Not the Horn. The Ocarina

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Subtitle: How Much Did You Spend on Your Instrument?

The purpose of this chapter is to show that music must come from within you. Many players get so focused on the difficulties of playing their horn that they don't manage to get their musical feeling out the bell.

The first in this series will demonstrate a virtuoso performance on the ocarina. It is a hollow body with a mouthpipe to blow into. There are a series of tone holes on the instrument. A very simple type is called the "potato whistle." I remember somewhere around 1963 hearing a performer on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour doing a great jazz rendition of "I Found a New Baby." His performance had all the style and inflection you would expect from a good jazz clarinetist, for example.

The video below shows a Korean performer doing Monti's Czardas on (what I think is) a 12-hole ocarina. Just listen to the style and musicality he gets out of this simple instrument.



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