My first ocarina was from a hippy shop in Birmingham that also sold dreamcatchers. It was a circular brick-coloured one with zig-zag patterns, probably meant to look ‘ethnic’?
A few years later I found some charcoal-dark, pebble-smooth pendant Ocarinas whilst backpacking in China. They look and feel almost naturally formed, weather-hewn, igneous.
And recently I finally bought a Zelda-style ceramic one on a whim from a stall at an anime expo. Confession: I used to think that an actual Zelda-looking one would betray my pop-culture inspiration and make it more silly, be a bit LARP-y, as if somehow not a native part of my own adventure?
But that’s dumb and overly-conscious (and I’m older and less pretentious). I love this weighty blue thing with its charmingly naff box.
Of course, I could play none of them.
That lovely ocarina stayed in its box like so much other pop paraphernalia, nice when seen on the shelf or in the background of a podcast interview (Note: I have never actually been in a podcast interview) but really just another Optimistic Ocarina – bought but never played.
Well, now’s the time. Surely the remake release (with its pleasingly animated finger movements) is as good an excuse as any to learn a few tunes, I thought. To finally sound out songs so formative my atoms vibrate at Ocarina frequencies. Maybe I’ll be able to play into my controller like Eiji Aunoma!
So I’ve aimed to learn about five tunes by heart – nearly half a Zelda journey’s worth, depending on the game. Here are some adventure notes:
1) The Best Ocarina Is The One You Already Have!
Obviously if you already have one, just start with that. It only takes a few right notes for the fun to bite and — I cannot stress this enough — in just five minutes you can be playing the Song of Time and your purchase(s) will suddenly feel justified.
I started with my ceramic one which has a nice tone and was the recognisable ‘sweet potato’ 12-hole style we want (do not buy a Soprano one unless you are performing for dogs).
2)…But Soon You Might Want Another One
The ocarina sounded lovely but often needed purging (of spittle? Of residual music?) with a quick breath blast, else the highest notes came out as a shrill screech which proved extremely less-than-soothing, like getting caught by a ReDead mid-tune.
By the time this article is out, you might be able to buy one of those Nintendo ones they’ve teased, and if in the US there’s the famous Songbird ocarinas amongst others. But I bought a Night By Noble which was recommended so many times online I was suspicious it could be one of those sus looking items with too many Verified Purchases on Amazon.
Actually it’s great. It has a nice matte rubber finish and though the tone is a little less whimsical, I can be more consistent on the high notes. The black does seem to show up residue from my lips, though? Who knew my lips left residue!
(As far as I can tell, this detail is not included in the remake.)
3) The Ocarina Has A Control Scheme (And A ‘Nose’)
It turns out an Ocarina is fairly simple to play, with a toot of the tongue producing a sound that is clear and sweet. It’s like saying ‘Tu’ into the instrument – maybe try it now if you have one?
But the notes can be fragile, easily messed up by slight changes of grasp that rock your digits on or off by just enough millimetres for stray leaks to change the pitch. Watch those thumbs underneath!
Getting used to the different anchorings to keep things steady is a bit like acclimatising to a new control scheme, and is pleasingly analogue and tactile. I’m a big fan of the quick shift of your fourth and fifth fingers to the ocarina’s nose when going for fewer-finger high notes and the way this soon became second nature. Oh, and definitely use more finger pads than tips!
4) You Can Be An Ocarina Hero Right Now! (As In Like Guitar Hero)
The best bit.
Anyone who’s ever learned an instrument knows that old music is secretly crap and no one wants to play it – no one actually likes the classical pieces in the ABRSM book.
Luckily I’m not doing grades in ocarina, so could incentivise my learning by choosing a syllabus of pure Zelda bangers (feel free to choose your own).
What’s great is that online there are loads of readily available ocarina tab sheets which are visual keys to finger patterns – a bit like playing a rhythm action game (though unlike sheet music, they don’t tell you the rhythm).
And because the playable bits of the tunes in Ocarina of Time only use a range of five notes you can quickly acclimatise to the main finger combos and get tooting (technical term).
5) The Song Of Time Is Easy To Play And Magic To Hear
This is an iconic melody and was my first priority.
It’s composed in the gorgeous Dorian mode like all evocative tunes ever, with echoes of the Temple of Time’s Gregorian-style choir that I still half-hear whenever I enter a church/courtyard/general wide space. The fact it’s so core to Majora’s Mask too makes it even more impactful (you can almost hear the drum drop and Dawn Of The First Day screen after the last note).
Best of all, it’s fairly simple to play, and when I manage to accurately hit the second phrase with its uplift and final conclusion, it gives that chill of recognition. You almost want to stare in wonder into the ocarina like Link does in Ocarina of Time, as if looking for the source of a seashell’s song.
6) Zelda’s Lullaby Is Marginally Less Easy To Play But Worth It
Zelda’s Lullaby might have made you shed a tear in Skyward Sword during the sealing scene. Or fully face-melt during The Best Game Ending Ever in Tears of the Kingdom. I almost choked the first time I nailed it on the ocarina, that high D so sweet and pure and elevated, before the lilting melody afterwards that sounds like home.
The way you have to earn that high note with good breath work and open positioning makes it all the better.
Top secret: Even more than the overworld theme, this might be the most important Pan-Zelda tune in my mind?
7) Ballad Of The Gales (Is Not Strictly From Ocarina Of Time, Or Is It?)
Well no, it’s from Wind Waker.
Although that adventurous-sounding finale is also the second part of the Minuet of Forest warp tune from Ocarina of Time, which, at times, in my memory, is also Ocarina’s general warp theme tune – playing alongside the tinkling sound of the Link’s sparkling particles? It’s not, though; that’s Wind Waker’s swirling tornado transport.
But it is heroic and adds real texture to Link’s seafaring journey, so that even warping around feels like punctuation in some grand narrative. And really there are so many referenced and repeated motifs in Zelda, it all somehow feeds into the symphonic Song of Zelda in general, that accumulated Uber-Zelda vibe that permeates all its various tellings.
For this one, I had to transfer the melody from sheet music and at first it was hard to get just right, to carry the spirit of it. The speed of the finger-change for the first four ballad notes is tricky, but the second part’s four-finger G before the final F really helps it land with grandeur.
8) Quick-Tip! The Ocarina Should Be Close And Visible (And Hide Your Phone)
You might not relate, but when something becomes ‘A Thing’, it sometimes gains too much weight and import and a deadening sense of duty; no one wants more actual things on their to-do list (I still haven’t ticked off the trip to the tip today!).
The point is friction is the strongest force in the universe (for me) and must be reduced wherever it can be, even for fun ocarina learning.
So it proved far better for me to have the ocarinas lounging about boxless in arm’s reach of my desk, easily seen and grabbed and played as respite from Actual Things. A bit like having it already equipped to a C-button!
Then, instead of scrolling endless YT Shorts, I’d do a little tooting on an ocarina, which quickly becomes a bit more tooting, and soon all these micro-sessions and micro-lessons accumulate in ways too subtle to articulate – but somehow the playing gets better.
This was also helpful because I was trying to learn my few ‘main’ tunes by heart, on which note:
9) Quick Theory! Gaming Muscles Can Be Learning Muscles?
When my cousin and I were self-teaching for a piano grading a few years ago, I noticed her solo practice was limited by her frustration at her mistakes, first pausing, then stopping, too fed up by her slip-ups. Whereas I could happily run a few notes on repeat, lazily thinking about my favourite thickness of noodle (for example), whilst slowly improving and letting the automaticity bed in.
Now I’m not sure if this is trained by years of gaming restarts, by things like F-Zero GX Story Mode challenges, Celeste C-Sides, or Silksong Act 3. Or if I’m just wired to find such pattern practice to be a lovely enclave of focused repetition, with its own centrifugal force and sense of safe remove from the crowded front-brain world. But I definitely think it helps?!
10) Fi’s Theme Has Tricky Finger Flutters But Is Worth It
By the way there’s lots of useful websites and YouTube videos and there’ll probably be lots-er by the time the game’s out and beyond. Feel free to recommend your favourites in the comments!
I’ve used a few, but mostly defaulted to this guy. And if you want to go beyond just noodling about with Ocarina Tabs, his opener course of 14 episodes of ocarina basics is really nicely paced and eases you into some bona fide music know-how. Also, he seems nice? And the spirit of Zelda stuff should be wholesome and nice.
(Except those bits in Majora’s Mask.)
So now I’m practising the beautiful Fi’s theme from Skyward Sword; a personal favourite from a personal favourite. In a series full of iconic music, it still stands out as a Zelda all-timer, and the warbly, mystical-sounding bit requires fun-but-tricky flutters played during one breath, which feels like learning a new ocarina mechanic.
Then I’ll carry on working on my fifth choice, the final ‘Stable Trotters Serenade’ from Tears of The Kingdom, a song so lovely my heart swells to hear it.
11) But There Are Other Ocarina Heroes (Like In Dragon Ball Z Movie 13)
This was wild to realise; I always thought that the Dragon Ball Z movie where Tapion plays his gorgeous, melancholic ocarina melody alongside a music box spell was just riding the post-OoT wave. But it turns out it predated the game by three years?
Of course, before that, A Link To The Past had its own Obviously-An-Ocarina (though translated in English as the rather less poetic ‘flute’), and the original Zelda itself basically had an actual flute flute, or recorder.
In an oft-cited interview, Miyamoto says (in that typically understated, recognisable Japanese Developer Interview style) that the Ocarina was chosen for OoT because he liked “international music such as Inca or Latin” and that it seemed to suit Zelda. He also mentions the earlier ocarina from Itoi’s Mother (the game, not his Mum).
But lots of people also mention Sojiro’s influence, a Japanese man who became besotted with the sweet potato form of Ocarina we know and love (developed roughly in 1800s Italy, though vessel flutes in general have existed for aeons before) and made about 10,000 of them over 10 years.
He was eventually pleased enough to play around 10 of them, and his music ended up being featured in a very popular Japanese documentary from 1986 called The Great Yellow River and so — legend has it — the spell was cast.
12) Ocarina of Mine
And now, half a century later, I’m here in Britain (where the rivers are ideally blue), with nearly three decades of association and affection for this instrument and sound because of a video game legend, deep-imprinted at a formative age.
I’m excited for people playing for the first time!
And I’m excited for a retelling, a remake, a re-myth. Re-enchantment. Whatever the thawing thoughts on the more realistic, tactile new art style, Ocarina of Time is a game world given magic and mystery by its sound and music; by the core memory of Kokiri Forest or the ambient dream themes of the dungeons or the triumphant fanfare as you roam across Hyrule Field, or even sometimes the absence of music – the echo of footsteps away from Saria standing alone on a bridge.
But of course also the songs you learn on the way, played on an ocarina like spells made from air
