So today and yesterday I decided instead of learning any new tunes I would officially learn the basis of all music- notes.
Mainly because when it comes to me and instruments, I have a really bad habit of only learning songs I want to play, instead of learning the notes first and making it easier for myself. So I decided I would. And I did!
Now I can play and just read the letters instead of having to check the chart all the time. Why don't I always do this with instruments? Lol. I'm guess I'm too stubborn. Or lazy... maybe both, lol.
So yeah, that's helped alot. Now I'm learning longer things like the Lost Woods theme and the Song of time. I'm afraid it's all gonna be Zelda stuff till I can find some other ocarina tunes, sorry!
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Epona's song & Sheryl
So, it's a new day, and a new sucess- I can play a song!
Well, a tune, really. But still, I'm pretty happy about it.
And wouldn't you know it? It's a Legend of Zelda song. To be more specific, Eponas song! The main reason I learnt this one is because it's my sister's favourite song out the game. Plus it only uses 3 notes, so it's a pretty easy one to practice. Though it took me a while to get the pace right.
Oh wait, if you want to play this song as well, here are the notes:
C A G C A G A G
And here's a video of someone playing it, well a long version, mine's only the short version you have to play in the game:
Well, a tune, really. But still, I'm pretty happy about it.
And wouldn't you know it? It's a Legend of Zelda song. To be more specific, Eponas song! The main reason I learnt this one is because it's my sister's favourite song out the game. Plus it only uses 3 notes, so it's a pretty easy one to practice. Though it took me a while to get the pace right.
Oh wait, if you want to play this song as well, here are the notes:
C A G C A G A G
And here's a video of someone playing it, well a long version, mine's only the short version you have to play in the game:
Yeep, I'm so jealous of his skillz lol
Even though I've got the song down though I'll still need to practice a bit more before it sounds right, at the moment it's a little off, lols. Maybe I should concerntrate more on the smoothness of my movements or something.
Once I've got a couple of shorter songs under my belt, and better hand posture and stuff, I might learn the full version, who knows?
Anyway. I decided today, well, tonight, I would show you Sheryl- The ocarina I bought in Holland and named within minutes, I'm a bit kiddy like that.
SO, now I pronounce to you... SHERYL!!
Ta Daaaaa!!!
There's my baby :3 Lol. She's made of teracotta and even though there were fancier ones I could of bought, for some reason I felt I had to buy her.
Anyways, my parents are bugging me, I have to go now.
See ya!
Monday, 30 August 2010
Why?
You know, I think this is the first time in about a year and half I've titled a blog post. I never use titles. I'm a lazy poo.
Anyway, I guess I better explain myself.
What's this blog about? Well, it's just what it says on the tin. It's a diary, about ocarinas. 'Why?' I hear you say, well. That's an easy question as well.
On Saturday the 28th of August 2010, not too long ago (which you would know if you look at calendars and keep up with the rest of modern civilisation), I was walking through a market in The Haeg, Holland, because I'd just come out of this fancy Escher museum with my family. And I was walking around looking at all these amazing ceramics and stuff, doing the whole 'Oh ma gawd, look at that! Oh ma gawdddd, how they do that?' routine. (Because that's my duty as a British citizen, to make a complete and utter embarassment of myself when I'm on holiday). It's true. Besides, after struggling to pass ceramics class, a dumb old plate could probably make me gawp.
Anyway, enough about that. So I was walking through these stalls and tables with various grumpy, elderly, old, dutch people sitting behind them, leering at you when you got too close to touching their stuff, (which is kind of unusual, because Dutch people are lovely). And I suddenly heard this loud, high but calmly soothing sound coming from a stall on the opposite side of the path. Can you guess what it was children? Yep, that's right. An elephant.
Now that would of been interesting. Instead though there was an alternately interesting stall. An ocarina stall! And behind it was this pretty young woman playing for people (she was really good). (Really really good). And almost inevitably I looked down at her selection (she had brought her own hand made ocarinas to sell, REALLY CHEAP) and I instantly uttered-
'I want one'.
And that's how Sheryl -ahem- my ocarina came to be in my possesion. Fun, eh?
Anyways, so I spent the rest of holiday trying to learn how to play this thing. I didn't have internet or books or anything, so it was up to me to figure it out. 'Why didn't you copy what she was doing?' I hear you say, well, because I bought a totally different style of ocarina to the one she was playing, so that idea was out the window. (She was playing a cute little pendant one, and mines a sweet potato style). To be honest she did offer to show me how it worked, but I was kinda in a rush so I declined. Yeah. So basically I spent 3 days trying to play the ocarina BACKWARDS. Backwards, and up ways and, I dunno, I think I tried upside down at one point? It was a sad time. Though some how I was able to practice scales...
So when I finally got home, and my Mum stopped making me break my back by forcing me to
carry in suitcases, I went straight onto the computer to research this mysterious instrument. I mean I had heard of it before, everyones heard of the game 'Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time' for instance. (In fact, at first, since I was a little young when I started playing it, I thought Nintendo had INVENTED the instrument. What a naive little brat I was... Anyways, basically when I found out the instrument really existed a little bit later, it was a very awesome realization. Lol).
So I started to look for webistes, videos, charts, anything that could help me learn. I came across a few good places, though it took me an unexpectedly long time to find a note chart. I came across this website which I could of found it on, but I kept laughing at the name. (It was called the 'fingering forum' or something, and for some reason I found that funny, lol). Anyway, I finally found one on ANOTHER forum at last. I can't believe it took me so long. It's not that I had trouble finding out about ocarinas, just MY one. My ocarina has 9 holes, and the most common ocarinas have 10 or 12. So it took me a really long time to find one for 9, considering I thought they were the most common. Obviously not~
So. After practicing a few notes and things I had an idea. Why not make a blog about my trials and tribulations while trying to learn this instrument? Could be fun, and with half my friends zooming off to uni soon, and leaving me behind, I'm gonna have a bit more time on my hands. It might even be helpful to other novices like myself. 'So why not?' I thought, and set this place up.
I hope I'll be able to keep posts regular to this place, because even though I am on summer holidays at the moment I only have 2 weeks left before I go back to college. AND I have a project to finish (hardly started). But I hear 10 minutes practice a day is quite enough, so see ya soon alligatorz~
Oh, I guess I better tell you something about myself before I leave. My name's Diana (you can call me Di if you want, most inernet people do), I'm 18 (woop woop) and my favourite activities are drawing, photography and enjoying life.
Oh, and I would like to be a comic artist after (hopefully) uni. Because I'm just random and unrealistic that way. Well, hopefully not that unrealistic.
See ya! (:
Anyway, I guess I better explain myself.
What's this blog about? Well, it's just what it says on the tin. It's a diary, about ocarinas. 'Why?' I hear you say, well. That's an easy question as well.
On Saturday the 28th of August 2010, not too long ago (which you would know if you look at calendars and keep up with the rest of modern civilisation), I was walking through a market in The Haeg, Holland, because I'd just come out of this fancy Escher museum with my family. And I was walking around looking at all these amazing ceramics and stuff, doing the whole 'Oh ma gawd, look at that! Oh ma gawdddd, how they do that?' routine. (Because that's my duty as a British citizen, to make a complete and utter embarassment of myself when I'm on holiday). It's true. Besides, after struggling to pass ceramics class, a dumb old plate could probably make me gawp.
Anyway, enough about that. So I was walking through these stalls and tables with various grumpy, elderly, old, dutch people sitting behind them, leering at you when you got too close to touching their stuff, (which is kind of unusual, because Dutch people are lovely). And I suddenly heard this loud, high but calmly soothing sound coming from a stall on the opposite side of the path. Can you guess what it was children? Yep, that's right. An elephant.
Now that would of been interesting. Instead though there was an alternately interesting stall. An ocarina stall! And behind it was this pretty young woman playing for people (she was really good). (Really really good). And almost inevitably I looked down at her selection (she had brought her own hand made ocarinas to sell, REALLY CHEAP) and I instantly uttered-
'I want one'.
And that's how Sheryl -ahem- my ocarina came to be in my possesion. Fun, eh?
Anyways, so I spent the rest of holiday trying to learn how to play this thing. I didn't have internet or books or anything, so it was up to me to figure it out. 'Why didn't you copy what she was doing?' I hear you say, well, because I bought a totally different style of ocarina to the one she was playing, so that idea was out the window. (She was playing a cute little pendant one, and mines a sweet potato style). To be honest she did offer to show me how it worked, but I was kinda in a rush so I declined. Yeah. So basically I spent 3 days trying to play the ocarina BACKWARDS. Backwards, and up ways and, I dunno, I think I tried upside down at one point? It was a sad time. Though some how I was able to practice scales...
So when I finally got home, and my Mum stopped making me break my back by forcing me to
carry in suitcases, I went straight onto the computer to research this mysterious instrument. I mean I had heard of it before, everyones heard of the game 'Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time' for instance. (In fact, at first, since I was a little young when I started playing it, I thought Nintendo had INVENTED the instrument. What a naive little brat I was... Anyways, basically when I found out the instrument really existed a little bit later, it was a very awesome realization. Lol).
So I started to look for webistes, videos, charts, anything that could help me learn. I came across a few good places, though it took me an unexpectedly long time to find a note chart. I came across this website which I could of found it on, but I kept laughing at the name. (It was called the 'fingering forum' or something, and for some reason I found that funny, lol). Anyway, I finally found one on ANOTHER forum at last. I can't believe it took me so long. It's not that I had trouble finding out about ocarinas, just MY one. My ocarina has 9 holes, and the most common ocarinas have 10 or 12. So it took me a really long time to find one for 9, considering I thought they were the most common. Obviously not~
So. After practicing a few notes and things I had an idea. Why not make a blog about my trials and tribulations while trying to learn this instrument? Could be fun, and with half my friends zooming off to uni soon, and leaving me behind, I'm gonna have a bit more time on my hands. It might even be helpful to other novices like myself. 'So why not?' I thought, and set this place up.
I hope I'll be able to keep posts regular to this place, because even though I am on summer holidays at the moment I only have 2 weeks left before I go back to college. AND I have a project to finish (hardly started). But I hear 10 minutes practice a day is quite enough, so see ya soon alligatorz~
Oh, I guess I better tell you something about myself before I leave. My name's Diana (you can call me Di if you want, most inernet people do), I'm 18 (woop woop) and my favourite activities are drawing, photography and enjoying life.
Oh, and I would like to be a comic artist after (hopefully) uni. Because I'm just random and unrealistic that way. Well, hopefully not that unrealistic.
See ya! (:
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