Have you ever wanted a collection of popular songs in tab notation for your 4 or 6 hole ocarina? You could search the internet for them, but that takes time.
More important, you'll find lots of songs you can't play. Either they're in odd keys, or their notes stray out of your ocarina's range, or they're just too complicated to deal with.
Especially if you have a 4 hole ocarina, you'll find music for so many good songs that go beyond your oc's 8 note range.
Here's a solution.
Here are two song books that have sold well for decades. They've gathered enthusiastic reviews at Etsy and have 4 1/2 + star ratings at Amazon.
Their titles are:
* 101 Songs for the Ocarina* 100 New Songs for the Ocarina
The books use ocarina tabbed notation, so you don't have to be able to read sheet music to play them.
Very importantly, they include the words under the tabs. This ensures you know to play the notes in their proper timing.
If you've ever had to deal with tab notation without the accompanying lyrics, you know that those can be pretty difficult to decipher. These two song books present tunes in a very accessible, easy-to-read way.
All the songs are playable on either 4 or 6 hole ocarinas.
What songs do the books include? It's an electic mix of popular hits, traditional favorites, folk songs from several countries, and a bit of everything else. Here are a few examples:
- My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
- My Heart Will Go On
- Yellow Submarine
- Joy to the World
- Fly Me to the Moon
- Morning Has Broken (by Cat Stevens)
- The Way We Were
- Scarborough Fair
- La Cucaracha
- Beautiful Dreamer
... and 90 others. The books have an alphabetic index so you can quickly find your favorites.
Summary
Though I download a lot of music from the web, it's very useful to have a core collection of tunes on hand. These fit the bill. They're well-indexed and in easily readable format. They give you a nice, well-balanced collection. And they're very inexpensive ($11.99 each at the time of writing).
Artist and occasional ocarina maker Ruthie Bitton of Santa Rosa, CA wrote these books. You can buy the songbooks directly from her web stores at these links:
