Concerto Alto C
Standard 12-hole ocarina, tuned in C, with range of A4-F6.
A notable feature of this ocarina, apart from looking amazing, is the long nose on the right side, which gives you a lot of space to hold the ocarina while playing high notes. In addition, the holes have a soft indentation around them, which helps me personally to properly seal the holes when playing fast songs.
It comes with a soft bag, and no strap.
Allegro Alto C
Standard 12-hole ocarina, tuned in C, with range of A4-F6.
This ocarina is surprisingly lightweight and small in size. The distance between holes is smaller compared to other ocarinas. The tune is clear, and it has a pleasant breath curve. Due to the small shape, there is not much space to support this ocarina outside of the holes.
It comes with a bag, and no strap. Alternative colors available.
Focalink Alto C
Standard 12-hole ocarina, tuned in C, with range of A4-F6.
The design is simply incredible on this ocarina. It’s available in multiple colors (blue, red, green). Notably, it demands less air pressure compared to Concerto Alto C, which makes it quite pleasing to play. The quality of the sounds is great, no complaints from me.
It comes with a soft bag, and no strap.
Our Recommendations
Are you looking to dive into the world of ocarina and get your very first instrument? We can help!
Here are three major pieces of advice that we’d like to give to all beginners:
• Prefer 12-hole C ocarinas over 6-hole ocarinas
6-hole sounds easier to learn than 12-hole. It’s not! These two categories play very different from each other. In our experience, 12-hole ocarinas are much easier to learn, since moving from one note to another often requires to move a single finger. Ocarinas tuned in C are great, look for the range “A4 - F6” in the description.
• Be careful if you are thinking about purchasing from amazon.com
There are a lot of low quality instruments for sale and you have a high chance to run into one of them. It hurts our hearts when one is introduced to the ocarina music via a really bad instrument. Granted, they are often cheap and convenient to get via Amazon delivery, but they also play cheap, sound cheap, and inevitably will ruin your inspiration to play.
Among the good ocarinas sold on Amazon is Night by Noble plastic ocarina. We’ve seen a lot of praise towards that particular instrument!
• Skip the plastic ocarinas and go for ceramic one right away.
Plastic ocarinas are a great budget option, and they also may feel like good option if you want to test out whether or not you will be interested in the instrument. But, they are actually harder to play, especially on the high notes. Compared to ceramic ocarinas, they sound windy, and have a steeper breathing slope, where the higher you go, the more air pressure you need to create to produce a clean sound. Also, when your music sounds better, you will be more encouraged to play!
We encourage you to skip plastic, and spend on a ceramic ocarina, because they are more beginner-friendly.