by Howard Fosdick © FolkFluteWorld.com.
I recently bought three songbooks of sheet music sold by Mountain Ocarinas and thought some of you might find a review of them useful. The books are:
- 300 Celtic Folksongs
- Favorite Hymns in Easy Keys
- Favorite Carols in Easy Keys
While the books were originally compiled for MO brand ocarinas, their arrangements are suitable for any ocarina you might own. Here's how they look:
Images courtesy of Mountain Ocarinas
300 Celtic Folksongs
This compilation of 300 Celtic Folksongs measures 9" by 11" and is 94 pages long. It costs $19.95 USD at the time of writing.
The book contains 318 songs. All are traditional tunes from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
This book has an alphabetical song index in front. Plus, the songs are arranged alphabetically by title throughout the book, so they're easy to locate.
The songbook is spiral-bound and lays flat while you read the music. You don't have to worry about creasing it or breaking its binding.
The great appeal of this collection is that the songs are all arranged in keys playable on any ocarina. So you don't have to worry about notes that are out of range, like you often run into when you download free sheet music from the web. Nor are the melodies written in keys that confront you with a ton of sharps or flats, which can make sheet music from other sources playble only by advanced musicians.
I'd judge this offering suitable for all levels of ocarina player, beginner to advanced. You can easily select those tunes that appeal to you. I've been going through the book melody-by-melody and have found I'm really improving my playing skills -- while enjoying myself.
While you can certainly download all the songs in this book for free from the web, the ease and convenience of having them all in one place -- and in easily-playable keys -- makes this book well worth its purchase price. This substantial songbook makes a nice cornerstone to your sheet music collection.
Favorite Hymns in Easy Keys
This song book contains 45 different hymns that are often considered traditional or religious classics. It measures 7" by 9", with 46 pages, and costs $9.95 USD at the time of writing.
The compilation has a song index in front, plus all melodies are arranged alphabetically by title in the book, making them easy to locate.
The songs include lyrics for multiple verses. So you could use this book for sing-alongs or in group situations. Tunes also note simple chords, making them suitable for very basic guitar or piano accompaniment.
Not being of a religious background, I debated whether to buy this book. I'm glad I did. Many of these tunes are easily recognizable, even if you don't know their titles or are not of a Christian or religious background.
Since many hymns are slow and melodic, this book is excellent for beginners. You won't encounter anything faster than an eighth note. However, even as a somewhat advanced player I've enjoyed the book because many of its melodies are hauntingly beautiful. They are classics.
I'm sure you could find the sheet music for most of the songs in this book on the web, but it's nice to have it all collected, organized, and nicely presented ready for playing. Too, these arrangements are specifically designed for ocarinas, so you don't have to worry about out-of-range notes or weird keys with too many sharps or flats.
Favorite Carols in Easy Keys
This songbook is the same format and price as the "Favorite Hymns in Easy Keys" book (7" by 9" at $9.95). It contains 20 Christmas Carols in suitable keys for ocarina players.
Each song comes with lyrics and simple chords, so they are suitable for sing-alongs and very basic guitar or piano accompaniment. And, each song is presented 3 times: in high, middle, and low range versions. This gives you great flexibility in group situations. Instrumentalists and vocalists can pick the version most suited to them. So it's easy to form mixed instrumental/vocalist groups.
A big benefit to this book is that you'll know most the melodies already. If your music-reading ability is limited, or if you have trouble figuring out the timing of an unfamiliar song, you don't have to worry about that here. You can just look at the notes and play melodies you already know.
The songs this book contains are:
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Away in a Manager
- Deck the Halls
- Go Tell It on the Mountain
- God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
- Good Christian Men Rejoice
- Hark the Herald Angels Sing
- Here We Come A-Caroling
- I Wonder as I Wander
- It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
- Joy to the World
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- O Come Little Children
- Come O Come Emmanuel
- O Little Town of Bethlehem
- Still Still Still
- The First Noel
- We Three Kings
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- What Child is This
Summary
All in all, I'm not a big buyer of sheet music. I just download most of what I like from the web from one of the free sheet music sources out there.
But I have to say, I found these three song books well worth their cost. They add value because they provide songs in keys that make sense and in a format that's easy to play on any simple flute, such as an ocarina or recorder. And if you want to try your oc in a group situation, these books are a good place to start because they include some lyrics and simple guitar chords.