What is this?
To give you a sense of scale, it's about 6 or 7 inches long.
It's shaped a bit like a boat, but it's clearly some kind of musical instrument.
The fingering is a bit like the recorder I used to play in school, but not exactly the same.
Tillerwoman bought it at her favorite thrift store today.
What is it ?
And where can I learn to play it?
14 comments:
Looks like an ocarina. South american instrument usually ceramic. Variations from other areas of the world.
Dvoynice also known as a Slav double flute
Does the top of that slide to reveal a pocket in which some substance may
be stored? I dunno, looks somewhat familiar to me, but not sure. Lots of carburetors on that thing.
Hmmm. It might be an ocarina I suppose. If you do a Google Image search on "ocarina" you find many strange shapes and varieties, most of which don't look much like this one. This image on flickr looks most like this one, although the sizes and placement of the holes are different. It is described as a hardwood key of g ocarina.
Wikipedia says. "The ocarina, unlike other vessel flutes, has the unusual quality of not relying on the pipe length to produce a particular tone. Instead the tone is dependent on the ratio of the total surface area of opened holes to the total cubic volume enclosed by the instrument. This means that, unlike a flute or recorder, sound is created by resonance of the entire cavity and the placement of the holes on an ocarina is largely irrelevant – their size is the most important factor.
So the size of the holes is apparently very important, and that implies that my instrument wouldn't play like the one in the picture, I guess.
Mile - I had never heard of the dvoynice before. But when I did a Google Image search on dvoynice, the instruments I found look very different from this one.
Don't judge me until you've walked a Mike in my shoes.
Ahah!. I think I found a picture that matches mine. This is a tenor ocarina.
This is what a tenor ocarina sounds like.
Thanks to Dan for solving the mystery. Now I just have to learn how to play it!
I thought the ocarina was a dance popular in the mid 1990's.
Hey, Ocarina!
I did learn to play a scale on my ocarina before I went to bed last night. It struck me that this little ocarina would be a perfect instrument for a cruising yachtsman because it is so portable and not at all fragile. In fact it would be perfect for any traveler.
I can imagine myself lazing under a palm tree watching my yacht at anchor and playing haunting melodies which would waft away on warm breezes and be heard by tropical maidens who would......
No, wait. I'm a Laser sailor. I am not a cruiser. I am not into boat maintenance in exotic locations. Repeat 10 times.
But it is a neat little instrument. And Tillerwoman bought it for about 3% of the true retail value!
I first heard about the ocarina went I went to a concert put on by a local Northwest couple name Eric Tingstad and Nancy Rumbel in the late eighties. They were very popular here and there music was always on the radio. She gave an explanation of the instument and how it worked. Although I am not much into music, I found the ocarina had a very haunting and soothing sound. Back to boat maintenance in a non exotic location!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCka_wGyzKA
I have a ceramic ocarina somewhere. Can't remember where I got it or why, but I like the wooden one you have better. The one I have is very small - it might work well with a child's smaller hands, but then again, I've always worried the thing would break, as it doesn't seem that sturdy.
Instead of "Zamfir master of the pan pipe" I envision we'll soon see a video go viral of "Tillerman master of the ocarina". Hey--maybe there's a way to merchandize this; you could sell CDs of ocarina music on late nite tv...
Maybe I should change the name of my blog to The Ocarinning Sailor?
Either that or "Proper Musician".
I will never be a proper musician. I am even more clumsy and error prone at playing a musical instrument than I am at sailing a Laser.
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