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ubizmo
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« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2014, 07:03:09 pm » |
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I've done some limited playing in Irish trad sessions with MOs. It's limited because there aren't that many tunes that fit in the range of the MO, especially when played in the keys in which they will be played by the other musicians.
I recently discovered that "Condon's Frolics" works, played on the MO G, and that was fun.
The cuts and strikes/taps works very well on ocarinas, and it's often handy to use the thumb holes for cuts. The sound of these ornaments, especially cuts, is different on the ocarina, as compared to flute or whistle. The reason is this: when you cut on a flute or whistle, the brief cutting note has to be fairly close to the target note, or it won't work, and the cutting note doesn't get a chance to stabilize, so it's a bit lower in volume than the target note. The ocarina is actually more responsive in this way, so the cutting note can be very different in pitch from the target note and it'll still ring through very clearly.
This is either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how you look at it. Cuts are supposed to be instantaneous, more like percussion than actual "notes". The responsiveness of the ocarina means the player has to execute the cuts really fast, or they'll sound like notes rather than, well, cuts. Whistle and flute are a little more forgiving on this. On the other hand, on the ocarina you can cut with just about any tone hole, so you can often use the ones under your fastest fingers. For example, if you're cutting on G, a lot of people find that their left ring finger is slow. But you can use one of your other fingers to do it, or either thumb. You can use whatever works fastest.
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