Ocarina

Rating:
MMMMM - Matters!

One app that I had some good quality time with is an app called Ocarina. I must admit, I was not going to download this app at all despite its great success in the App Store, however, I finally gave in and tested it out for a week. I must say, I am extremely impressed.

Ocarina is touted by a company called Smule as the first “true” musical instrument for the iPhone. I would agree.

The application is an ancient instrument that you actually play on your iPhone. I am a little embarrassed to say I was a “band geek” in high school and during that time I played many instruments and I got to actually see an Ocarina be played on one of the many trips I took. Like a woodwind instrument, you blow into the microphone creating a soothing, beautiful sound that seems to puts me in another state of mind.

The controls are rather simple. Four dots on the screen represent holes in a traditional ocarina. Holding down the holes in combinations or by themselves changes the notes. Within the settings, you can change the pitch of your general play to hear any tune which is a nifty feature.

Now make no mistake - Ocaina is a real instrument so you can practically play anything. There are notes, so having a bit of a musical background, I figured things out pretty quickly, however, Smule offers lots of help. Additionally, you can hear from other users in their forum. You can also submit and request scores for various songs. Ocarina offers some scores on the site that you can get started playing, such as the Zelda theme, which is actually beautiful on Ocarina. You can also create your own score through Smule’s online score generator.

When playing, you get a very soothing beautiful sound that makes you want to play and play. The app uses the accelerometer by allowing you to tilt the phone back and forth to create a vibrato to the notes you play, while tilting the phone side to side changes the vibrato rate.

Since Ocarina is somewhat of a social app, a really cool feature is within the button that looks like a globe. Tap that, and the world spends around and focuses on a person playing. When they stop, the earth zooms out and moves on to the next person who is playing. You can also skip past the people who aren’t playing too well.

Ocarina - if you have not noticed - is one of my favorite apps. It is without a doubt that a lot of time and effort has gone into this app. It is fun to play and easy to learn how to play even if you don’t know how to play any instrument. The app is only .99, so unlike the actual instrument, or any other instrument for that matter, Ocarina is pretty affordable. Try it. You will be able to serenade your loved ones to sleep!

This may be just me, but I’d like to see a duet, trio, or a symphony of Ocarina players playing some sort of piece. That’d be awesome.

Now available in the App Store
Price:
Free

Pros:
Easy to play
Can be hooked in to speakers or headphones
The globe feature is fantastic and can listen to users around the world playing like yourself

Cons:
Hard to determine the dots to corresponding notes
Addicting (although this may not be a true con)
Does not work with the bundled iPhone earphones with the mic, at least not for me