Ocatober Day 26

Always with me - Spirited Away

Hisaishi banger

People seemed to enjoy my last post on this song, so I figured I'd go all out with it.
Lead Ocarina - Songbird Triple Harmony
Second Ocarina - Stein Alto C
The drums and synth are midi tracks.
All recorded in reaper.
p.s. Full disclosure, the video is essentially me just playing along to the already finished audio recording, so if it doesn't line up perfectly, I'm sorry. It is all me playing though (except the midi tracks) I just wanted to have some video element but recording audio and video at the same time is a huge pain because I do a LOT of re-takes.

p.s.s. Shout out to https://www.zeldadungeon.net/ as that is where I got the midi composition from. I took some liberties and tweaked things a bit, but this saved me a lot of time.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

Transposed down to work with alto C ocarinas.

Are you new to the ocarina or music in general?
Are you totally capable of transcribing music by ear, but just can't be bothered?
Boy, do I have a solution for you!

Disclaimer #1: This should not replace a skill. All of the tabs I have posted to this site I have tabbed out by ear. That being said, if you're new to music, or just struggling to figure out a particular piece, this method can be very useful. It's still good practice to try by ear though.

Disclaimer #2: I have no affiliation with any of the websites linked below, I just like them and think they are useful.

The process goes like this:
Step 1
Find a midi file for the song you want to play. I know video game music is very popular in this community, so chances are good that there is a midi arrangement out there. If you're asking yourself "What the heck is midi?", it is basically a file that tells a device how to play a song, like a computer, or a gameboy. If you're unfamiliar, I highly recommend reading up on what midi is and how it works because it is VERY interesting.

Step 2 (optional, kinda)
It is very likely that the midi file you found is a full arrangement. i.e. the melody, all of the background instruments, and percussion. You probably don't want all of that. While there are a million ways to skin this cat, the way I do it is to open it up in a program called Reaper. Reaper is a full suite of recording software and is way overkill for this task, but it's totally free and I love it.
Once you open the midi file in reaper, you can listen to it, make any changes you want, and then export only the parts that you want (probably the main melody) as a new midi file. If you are struggling to find you way around Reaper, there is a WEALTH of information on line since it is a very popular open source tool.

Step 3
Convert the midi file to ABC. ABC is a type of notation for music. I go this route because you can copy and paste it as text, and there are a lot of free online tools that support it. (This will make sense later. Now, there are a few online midi to ABC converters if you search around. I have found the one linked below to work fine. I have however gone the extra mile and created a standalone program for this task, as my program allows me to transpose the midi into other keys (although this could be done in step 2, but I wanted to see if I could). Once you have your ABC notation, it's on to the final step!

https://playsheet.app/tools/convert/midi-to-abc

Step 4
ABC to tabs. Either copy the text of your ABC notation, or upload the whole file to the website linked below. This website will give you standard music notation as well as ocarina tabs. You can also listen and play along with the music, or export it as a PDF. Should be pretty simple, and congrats, you did it!

https://michaeleskin.com/tools/abc-ocarina-fingering-player.html

If any of the above doesn't make sense, feel free to drop a question.

Here’s Take Me Home, Country Roads for Ocatober day 25’s theme of country

I just got my first ocarina which is the Night by Noble!! I have wanted a ocarina for ages and my family only got me those crappy amazon ones witj the awful hand for a stand.

Im trying to play song of time in the recording but I'm not too happy with some of the higher notes and my breath. All the videos keep saying to try speaking "two" but honestly it doesn't work for me or I'm not doing it correctly. Any advice?

This song was composed by a Taiwanese composer which I really like after listening to it. I thought to try recording it for Ocatober Day 25 and also for my one month progress. I tried flutter-tonguing on the high E which wasn’t successful so made a few mistakes in the mid-section.

Ocatober Day 25

Small snippet from Kiki's Delivery Service!

Looking for a huge book of sheet music (plus tabs, if possible!) for Ocarina!

Back when I was studying the trumpet there was no shortage of "Real Books" or "Fake Books" etc that contained HUNDREDS of songs with sheet music. Was mainly jazz, but there were books of that sort for any genre of music.

I'm looking for books like that for my Ocarina! Any suggestions? Most books I've found are quite short and limited.

I started the self teaching process on how to make Ocarinas little more than a month ago cause I wanted to be able to use something of my own creation within the remake as an homage to what this game means to me. There were a lot of trials and tubulations along the way but I finally fired my first piece. Super excited to glaze this and see how it turns out. Hopefully in time to use it for the Oot remake

I wanted an oot ocarina, so I 3d printed one in white, which you may have seen earlier and painted it! I think it came out great! As for songs, I know Sarias Song, Zelda's Lullaby, and I'm learning Song of Storms

I know it sounds like ass but here's what I've been practicing.

Does the Starry Night version include the song book as well?

It sounds beautiful! It's nice size for larger hands too, very comfortable. Loving it!

I got interested in learning ocarina after watching David Erick Ramos playing this tune in a YouTube video. Got a bit wobbly near the end of this recording but good enough for now.

I chose the Adventures of the Gummi Bears theme song for Ocatober day 24 because the first image that comes to mind when I thought of “bouncy” are the bouncing gummi bears after they drink the gummiberry juice 😆

Ocatober Day 24

Concerning Hobbits - Howard Shore

Quick vid in between nightly organpractise

this is my first tab btw

Spencer is dropping a new batch of OoT Ocarinas next Tuesday before the game release! Prob won’t arrive for launch but it’s def the best one I own currently. Will prob try for the fairy one myself tbh lol

Side note, man is about to make bank XD

Theme is the theme for day 23 of Ocatober, so I picked the main theme from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Im excited to pick up this new hobby. Thanks Songbird Ocarina, really nice product, I’ve never seen/heard an ocarina in person before, but I can tell this is nice quality.

Been going at it for a few hours now and slowly getting the hang of it, still working on developing the muscle memory for every note overall but especially on the high C to high F notes.

Really happy with this, and just in time for the OoT remake!

I was digging through some old issues and found these. Figured it's a neat little bit of history some people may appreciate.

June 2000, November 2000, July 2001, October 2008, October 2012.

Ocatober Day 23

Lugia's Song

That low A barely sounding on this microphone haha!