Ocarinas United

Seems that I have noticed a number of people asking about relative ranges of Ocarinas. Questions like - "How much lower is an alto?" - "Should I get a tenor or a soprano?" etc. In an attempt to help answer these questions, I have started a chart which shows the ranges of some of the ocarinas and makers that I have information on.

If you would like to see a specific Ocarina added to the chart, please let me know. (Include key and range as listed below if possible)
This chart is for single ocarinas only. I may make a second one for double, and triple, etc. as time goes on.

To read this, you must understand the note name/number scheme. Each note on the piano has both a name and a number. The "C" in the middle of the keyboard is commonly known as "middle C" and in the number system gets the name "C4". The next "C" one octave above is called "C5", and the octave above that, "C6". Octaves below middle C count down by octave.

Many songs for ocarina are written in the middle of the treble clef, which makes it nice and easy to read, but if you play it on a small and high ocarina, you are likely playing it so that it sounds one octave higher than the notes on the page. This is OK, and not a problem. I only mention it to help understand the note name/number system I have used on this chart.

Enjoy ! - Gerald_G

I've grouped by seller or maker, and sorted from lowest to highest.
The colours have range meanings now as well....Purple = Bass range, Green = Tenor, Blue = Alto, Red = Soprano.
Some of these assignments reflect my own choice of what range approximately is called by these names.

Most recent edit includes dropping the lowest octave on the piano keyboard.
I doubt I'll have to add an ocarina that goes that low, and it allows the JPG image to contain more information with less bits.

woah.
that is amazing.
that can really help people in figuring out if songs are in their range or not.

MOVED

woah my pendant range is awsome

Wow. Dude, thank you SOOO much! That is beyond cool

After seeing this, I think I am going to look for a 12hole tenor in C which plays the low A. Since A is the relative minor of C, it will be easy to play in the A minor key too. Just wish it went to F# for the leading tone.

C and Am will be nice to play in. Plus some closely related keys with an accidental or two.

Oh I see!

Thank you a lot!!

I really think that this will help people to figure out which one the should buy.

On a side note I still consider getting the mountain oc in G even though I would probably like an oc that sound more mellow. But I don´t know if I will like the oc as an instrument in general and I don´t want to spend too much on something that I won´t play.

Also I think the G looks better than the one in C and it is more appealing that it is smaller too.

Plus: for about $20 you get an oc with 10 holes rather than 5 or 6 holes like the pendant for about the same price.
And I have read that it is easier to play an inline oc compared to the pendant.

(Oops I did it again, I wrote a longer post than was planned, sorry hehe)

Oh and thank you again Gerald_G!

This is the coolest thing I have seen on OU! Thank you so much. It makes purchasing an ocarina very clear on what you are getting (especially since I have a keyboard with which I can do a sound comparison)

I think this deserves a sticky. (Tacks on wall)

It is something everyone should take a look at before buying an oc, so maybe it should be up in the buyers guide section?
Just a thought since this isn´t the first place you look if you are new to this place.

I thought I did post it in the buyers guide area, maybe a moderator felt it better here and moved it. Not a big deal to me either way.

I wonder though - would this chart be better if they were sort of sorted by general range rather than by the order I found the information in ?

Please let me know what you all think.

Gerald

I think a good order would be to order them first by maker and then by range (lowest to highest pitched). So that it would be something like this:

Maparam AltoC <-- lowest Maparam
Maparam SopG
Maparam SopC <-- highest Maparam
Mountain C <- lowest Mountain
Mountain G <- highest Mountain
(no need to write those lowest highest things, I just wrote them there for clarification)

Also if you order them like that, it'd be nice if you'd somehow mark that these ocarinas here are Maparams, these are STL and so on.
For example draw a rectangle around the ocarinas.

I've posted a second edition - edited for clarity and better presentation of information.

Gerald

noooo D: you removed stl's 12 hole soprano D:

That was an oversight - I'll replace it as soon as I can.

Any other ocarinas I should add ?

Six street potery of the zelda replica and songbirds maybe?