How to Read Music on Occarina
Learning to read music for the ocarina is important if you wish to play any ocarina sheet music found on the Internet or in music books. The ocarina is a wind instrument that was popularized by the Nintendo 64 game "The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time." Various different types of ocarina are available, generally differentiated by the number of holes they have in them to change the note. 12-hole ocarinas allow for a great deal of flexibility and can be used to play virtually any ocarina music. Ocarina notation is the same as the standard type of music notation.
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Instructions
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Identify the notes that appear on the staff. Understand that a musical staff consists of five lines, and between those lines are four spaces. Any songs played on the ocarina will be written on the melody staff (because the instrument does not produce low enough notes to be a bass instrument), which means the bottom line of the staff represents E. Each space and line is counted upwards from there, and each represents a different note. For example, the space above E represents F, and the line above that represents G. Count upwards in this way if you can't remember one of the positions. The lines represent (from bottom to top) E, G, B, D and F, and the spaces represent F, A, C and E.
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Spot any flat or sharp symbols and adjust the note you play accordingly. Flat symbols look like a "b," and mean that the note indicated should be played a semi-tone lower. If you find a G note with a flat symbol next to it, play G flat. Sharp symbols look like the "hash" symbol found on phones ("#") and mean the note should be played a semi-tone higher (G becomes G sharp).
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Practice fingering different notes as they appear on the staff. For example, a note in the first space above E represents the note F, which you should play on your ocarina as you read it. On a 12-hole ocarina, cover up the four furthest holes, and the furthest left of the opposite holes, leaving the ones between them free. As well as this, cover the two holes on the side of the ocarina. Play along with a simple tune as you read the notes to aid your memory of the musical notes and how they translate to your ocarina. See Resources for full note diagram.
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Play a simple melody based on what you've learned. See Resources for the music for "Saria's Song" from "The Ocarina of Time." Play a G, B and C sharp for the first three notes. Understand that ledger lines act like markers for notes that aren't included on the staff. For example, the second note in "Saria's Song" has one ledger line going through it, meaning it would be one line higher than the top line of the staff. Count up two notes from F to find that the note is A.
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References
Resources
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