Is there some way to pin a thread here?
I would like to do a substantial article about using the ocarina as a folk instrument, but it's likely to take months to develop - there are a lot of angles to consider and I can't think of everything all at once. Is there some way to stop it getting lost?
Just made it sticky for you :)
I would be very interested to read your article once you're finished, Jack, in addition to any thoughts you might feel like dropping in this thread along the way while you work on it.
I actually don't have much of a relationship with folk music myself, having come to the ocarina as many do through game and film soundtracks. And I have felt that to be a bit of a shame. I do have a certain amount of formal musical education behind me, but that was mainly through classical music, with a little jazz on the side.
So my knowledge of folk is really limited to the most casual, surface-level appreciation of that handful of Irish/celtic songs that everyone kind of knows, and maybe some European lullabies that were sung to me as a child. I can play the odd thing by ear, I've learned one or two jigs and reels. But I don't know the first thing about English folk, despite being half-English and growing up in the UK
@Jack - given your starting this thread, I take it that your core premise might be that the ocarina is in fact a great starting place for getting into folk music? Any performers or collections you would recommend as a starting point for such explorations?