Basic scales for single chamber ocarinas

Scales are collections of notes that sound good together, within which music is written by choosing notes from those scales. It is worth practising these until you instinctively know how to move between the notes, as it will make sight reading easier.

Major scales

The easiest scale to play is the native tuning of the ocarina, i.e. C:

The second playable major scale, using only one accidental is F major. On the surface this appears limited as it leaves no free notes at the top. However this lost range can be found at the bottom, which is useful as music often goes down below the tonic instead of up.

G major on a single chambered ocarina is an interesting one to consider as only one G exists within the range of a single chambered ocarina. This scale is useful for playing 'plagal' modes, where the tonic is in the middle of the range.

D major:

Natural minor scales

If you take the same notes as F major, but instead use D as the tonic note, the resulting scale is D natural minor. This is arguably the easiest minor scale on the ocarina. It has a usable range of an octave plus a minor 3rd on top and a major second at the bottom.

C minor.