Learning to Play Mountain Ocarinas Self-Learning Curriculum

[Cliff]

I'm trying to make a simple "Customer Reviews" section like Amazon has for all of it's products. I find this the most useful help for me on Amazon when thinking about a product.

Sample Pages

If you own the "Learning to Play Mountain Ocarinas" Self-Learning Curriculum... let others know what you think of it. What do you like? What do you dislike? Do you like the audio portion? The book? Was it what you expected? Help others know if this would be a good fit for them.

[rweagle]

I purchase this learning set along with my first Poly G.  This is a very valuable resource for those new to music or new to the ocarina.  Each lesson is broken up to learn a new note, along with songs that only use the notes you've learned to that point.  Just this book alone can fill your repertoire with many songs including Celtic, Folk, kids, and Christmas tunes. (I haven't counted)  The curriculum took me about a year to get through, and I did have a musical background.  For some it may take a shorter time, others longer, depending on your skill and dedication to practicing.  The CDs make a great companion, to help you learn what the songs should sound like.  The book also includes a few duets and sampling of Christmas tunes at the end, plus some notes on how to become a better ocarina player.  Even after finishing the course, I still go back to it to brush up on the songs I learned.

Rob W.

[Spatolo]

Here's my unbiased and sincere opinion, hoping that it could be of help for others.

I'm learning a lot from this book. It's great expecially for learning to correctly read notes duration in written music; thanks to the "rhythm patterns" approach. You have to listen to some rhythmic patterns, then move (your leg, your hand, whatever: using also your body helps you to remember and learn - I know this because my girlfriend is a teacher), than move and echo to the rhythm, and then do the same reading the notes as the last step! Very effective.
The book approach is gradual, but it brings you pretty far while being for beginners. It begins with tunes you can play with one hand and the easiest rhytmic patterns and it step by step guide you to discover more complex rhytms and more complex notes (the highests!).
It's also full of tips for teaching to kids; and overall one can feel the passion for teaching and the experience that the author put in.
The only backside I could personally find of that is that the recordings are all done with quite a lot of reverb; while I personally would had preferred more to listen the tracks as I could play with my practice in normal life; I mean, to have a sample to strive at while improving.
Overall: highly recommended for any beginner. There are plenty of tips both in the text and in audio parts. The approach is slow and steady, every units have advanced activities (like playing by ear) and the voices are great  .

That's all.

[Ric]

For me, this course is an indispensible part of the "Ocarina Experience"....and one of the main reasons I bought my first Ocarinas.  I can't imagine NOT owning this course.  I went from knowing exactly nothing about music to playing simple tunes within minutes because of the great design of the Mountain Ocarinas and this fantastic resource!  I've still only made it through the first 3 lessons after, oh, 8 weeks or so...but that's because I found that to be enough knowledge to allow me to pick up a book of hymns from my church and begin to play a number of my favorite tunes.

It sounds hokey, but this course changed my life!  Thank you Cliff and Karl!

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As far as possible improvements, I'd have to agree with Spatolo. Although the recordings sound beautiful, it would be helpful if they sounded more "realistic".

I love the "virtuoso" performances between lessons, they really give me something to aspire to...but perhaps the actual lessons could sound more like the efforts of a fantastic student?

Okay, all of that only applies if a "2nd Edition" were in the works...in the meantime, if you're going to buy an Ocarina, just buy the course!

[Christinethecurious]

I've been working with my oldest son through this program since he was in kindergarten 6 years ago,  In a few weeks we should finish the curriculum, and he is looking forward to his promised wooden ocarina.

We are getting stumped however on the rhythms patterns now.  I can no longer understand the sense behind the pattern syllables, and have to resort to the ones I learned as a student.  My son is also studying flute with another teacher now, so he is getting two methods symultaniously for rhythem.

Is there a chart of rhythm syllables, or an algorithm for them?

By the way, when I started the program, my aunt, who has a Ph D in voice performance was very excited by the curriculum, especially the rhythm syllables part.

Thanks,
Christine in Massachusetts

[projectcrazy12]

I Have been using this to start me off but im stuck on unit 2...pathetic feeling coming... but its not cause i cant play the stuff if i heard it i could but i barely can read music at all (and i havent opened the cds yet whats on them?)
Thank you
Projectcrazy12