Blowing an ocarina correctly
It is important to blow an ocarina correctly to create a clean sound, and this starts with your breathing. You may find it interesting that your body can actually breathe in two different ways:
- shallow (clavicular) breathing where the shoulders raise/lower, and
- belly (diaphragmatic) breathing where the belly moves in and out.
To experience how it feels to breathe using these two approaches, first put one of your hands on your belly button, and your other hand above it on your ribs.
- Shallow (clavicular) breathing is when you breathe into your upper body, such that only the hand that is placed on your ribs moves. If you check in a mirror, you'll also see that your shoulders raise and lower.
- Belly (diaphragmatic) breathing is where you breathe such that only the hand on your belly button moves.
You may find belly breathing easier at first while lying on your back, with your hands placed as shown. Another approach is to lie with a book on your belly, focusing on raising and lowering it.
Being aware of how we are breathing matters because playing the ocarina is considerably easier with belly breathing.
You may remember from school a model of the human lungs consisting of a balloon inside a bottle, with another balloon stretched over the bottom. The bottle represents your rib cage, which is like a bone 'basket', and the stretched balloon represents the diaphragm.
- When you breathe with your diaphragm, the diaphragm moves up and down serving the same function as a piston in a syringe, sucking air into your lungs.
- By comparison, shallow breathing is done by expanding and contracting the rib cage itself. Being mostly made from bone and cartilage, it is much more restricted in its motion, limiting your air capacity and breath control.
If you just observe yourself during the day, noticing how you are breathing, you may find that you're mainly breathing using one or other of these, or possibly even a mixture of both.
It is worthwhile practising breathing, and learning to breathe using just the diaphragm. I'd suggest spending a few minutes a day practising using the methods suggested until it becomes second nature.
It is also worth spending some time researching the anatomy of breathing, as being aware of the mechanics lets you clearly understand what you're aiming to do, and also addresses some common misconceptions, like:
- To take a deep breath, it may be intuitive to raise your shoulders really high, but there's absolutely no need.
- Sucking in the belly while breathing is counterproductive. When we breathe using the diaphragm, the muscle expands downwards, pushing on organs like your stomach and intestines, and causing your belly to expand outwards.
The ocarina's embouchure
Embouchure refers to how you shape your lips, and it matters more on the ocarina than you might expect. If you were to try blowing an ocarina with your tongue very close to your teeth, for instance, it can create a noisy tone.
The goal of the ocarina's embouchure is to position your lips and tongue to create a smooth passage for the air to flow unimpeded.
Firstly, part your teeth. Roll your lips in slightly so they are flat with the teeth (arrows). Position the tongue level with the bottom lip covering the lower teeth.
Next:
- Form a small oval-shaped aperture between your lips. This should be of moderate size, as the instrument will sound noisy if the apature is too restricted.
- LIGHTLY touch the mouthpiece of the ocarina against the aperture, using just enough pressure to create a seal.
The mouthpiece should rest gently against the outside of your lips, and should never touch the teeth. Do not try to grip the mouthpiece with your lips, they are not responsible for supporting the instrument.
The lip aperture is critical when we play multichamber ocarinas as it is used to direct the air into the correct windway. Putting too much of the mouthpiece in your mouth also makes chamber switching difficult due to excessive friction.
Also note that on any ocarina, how you angle the instrument matters. It should be angled so that you are blowing directly down the windway. Tilting it sharply up or down kinks the air passage, which can restrict airflow and result in a noisy tone.
The impact of posture
Obviously, the overall posture of your body matters in playing comfortably, but it can also impact your breathing.
Standing or sitting straight greatly increases your air capacity, as slouching compresses your belly and limits how long you can play between breaths.
Give this a try:
- Slouch your upper body forwards.
- Inhale with your diaphragm as much as possible.
- Hold the same breath and straighten your upper body. You'll suddenly be able to inhale even more with your diaphragm.
To check your posture, stand with your back to a wall, preferably one with no baseboard. Your heels, bottom, shoulders, and the back of your head should all touch the wall.
Maintaining this posture is easiest while standing, sitting on the edge of a chair, or sitting on a rolled up towel or block.
Take care as it is easy to fall into a slouched posture by subconsciously compensating for a music stand that is too low, and other things. It's better to adjust the external factors than have a bad posture.
If you've been in a slouched posture for a long time, the chest muscles can become very tight and standing straight may be impossible. If so, look for other resources discussing this, and seek medical advice.
Articulation (starting and ending notes)
For many beginners playing a wind instrument for the first time, it's intuitive to start and finish notes by 'puffing' into the instrument. Unfortunately, doing so causes the pitch to ramp up, peak and roll off. It sounds uncertain as the note has no duration at a single pitch.
Rather, we want the note to start abruptly at the correct pitch, and end just as suddenly. You can hear the difference in the sound samples below.
We achieve clean articulation using the tongue.
- Say 'Tu', and extend the 'u': 'Tuuuuuu...'.
- Pay attention to what your tongue is doing. Notice how the tongue is shaped to block the air initially, and the tip of the tongue lowers to release it.
- Now repeat this without voicing the sound.
Starting is similar to 'Tuuuuuu...', and to stop, the inverse is done, raising the tongue quickly to block the airflow, like '...uuuuuuT'. Give this a go with your ocarina.
Remember to hold some tension in your cheeks so that they do not puff out. Puffing the cheeks achieves nothing, and may limit your ability to control the flow of air.
If by some chance tonguing isn't working for you yet, don't worry, as we'll be exploring the physiology in much more detail in Tongue posture and articulation.
Basically, this is what's happening:
- The tongue is positioned to seal the roof of the mouth, blocking the flow of air.
- You start to exhale, but no air flows as the tongue is in the way.
- Then the tip of the tongue is lowered to release this stored pressure.
The sudden pulse of air released gives the note an 'attack', a moment when the sound quality is different from what you get with steady blowing. Where you position your tongue changes how the note's attack sounds; closer to the teeth as in 't' creates a distinct and airy attack, while placing the tongue further back along the roof of the mouth creates a softer attack.
Playing long tones on your ocarina
It is critical to be able to start notes cleanly and hold them stable over their duration. We can practice this using the long tone exercise:
- Finger a note in the middle of the range. If you are playing an ocarina in C, the note G is good.
- Start the note with your tongue, as previously described.
- Hold the note. As you are about to run out of air, finish the note cleanly with the tongue.
Try to keep the note's pitch stable over its entire duration. Remember to check the pitch you are playing using a chromatic tuner, and raise or lower your breath pressure as needed.
It should sound something like this:
There are many more tips on breath control in the article Developing breath Control.
