I had a great weekend in a beautiful village in center Italy, named San Benedetto in Alpe. There were lots of teachers of traditional music and dances, of many regions of the world (while the main focus was about irish music, there was room for african dances, breton waltzes, and lots of more).
I went there mostly to learn something new about the tin whistle and the irish flute, so, I feared that people into that kind of stuff could be
very skeptical to anything not closely related to the tradition, and I choosen to keep my ocarina in the pocket for almost all the time.
BUT, when I pulled it out to show it off to a fellow musician I met at the restaurant table, well, he was stunned! "How beautiful it is" he said, and he asked for me if he could play it. Of course I agreed: in two minutes he was playing better than I ever did, well, ok, almost, anyhow, he was TALENTED.
After this (he asked me what instrument was that and I gave him some link on paper), I found the courage to play something around the restaurant on the way to the car. No more than a minute overall. And, a man followed me asking to see it, again! He too was stunned by it's beauty. "What it's made of?" "hem, it's a synthetic matherial used to build kitchen tops"). Really no more than five minutes with the ocarina out and I got lot of attentions, and I was forgetting about an irish player who told me... what's that? It sounds like a whistle!
Next year I will definitely not be so ashame and shy, and I'll show it off proudly. There are good chances that REALLY MANY musician will be interested in it, since it got all this attention in such a little time. I have my ocarina hanging all the time and at, only at a musical festival I've hidden it! What stupid I was. When I will be a good player for sure it will be easier not to fell into those mental, stupid traps.
Hope somebody enjoyed the story. Uh, the festival website is this one, if you care:
http://www.folkfest.it/english.php
