It's been awhile since I've posted, I know. The medieval faire went really well, despite a lack of visitors to the faire.I sold a few ocarinas, traded a few, and even gave one away. Got a lot of compliments, and most importantly got to talk to the other vendors and have fun! It has been moved to June of next year, so hopefully I'll get enough done by then to participate again.
I have decided to try some new things to improve my ocarinas, as there weren't getting any better. One is to focus more on the fipple block, which is the bottom of the airway. I think a lot of my problems start when the airway gets opened up too much and push down too far to direct the air stream in the direction it should go. So one thing I will try is making the mouthpiece separate. I thought this would be harder, but honestly at this point so much time is taken forming the mouthpiece anyway and I'm not getting great tones.
So yesterday I made a triangular-shaped ocarina with 9 holes. It's actually an English-style fingering system, but extended to make it the same as the 12-hole fingering range. It has very airy high notes, but they are there, so I'm excited.
Next I'm going to try a toroid ocarina, as well as a harmonic double with both sides playing in the same key and using a linear English fingering.
You can view my attempt on the 9-hole here.
