OcarinaWind "Forest Whisper" 12 Hole Ocarina Classic Straw Fire Masterpiece Collectible, Alto C Ceramic Ocarina - Highly Recommended by Shop Owner

sounds lovely - my daughter was easily able to make beautiful sounds. She does play the flute so that might have helped. Looks nice, the bag is nice and it's been a hit.

Surprised by how "expensive" this instrument feels compared to cost..

Sound: excellent rich sound. Very clear "ringing" low notes, and very pleasant high pitch notes which do not have distortion. I can produce all the notes very clearly. The range is beyond one octave. I am an amateur in music, but I can easily figure out and produce standard do re mi fa sol la to do, plus 3 very high pitched notes on top of that. The thing that is a useful feature on the ocarina is that because of the design and large holes, you can easily produce the sharp and flat notes by covering half of the hole, similar to how it can be done on the piano with the black keys. Additionally, this Ocarina design has umvery useful small holes next to two big holes, one in each side of the Ocarina. You can cover them to get sharps or flats. Basically there are no issues with the sound this Ocarina makes. It is pretty excellent.Design: No visible flaws with the design. All holes easy to cover firmly. The holes are positioned in a way that is comfortable for the fingers.The outside appearance, color, finish, are just exceptionally impressive. People I showed this "Forest Whisper" ocarina to thought it was made from some kind of dark Cherry or Mahogany wood. The appearance is pretty much indistinguishable. At least it is the case with my individual Ocarina.Extra: the Ocarina came with a nice pouch. I personally don't intend to travel with the ocarina but it should be in some kind of soft bag, or preferably a box of you take it somewhere. For me this bag is very useful because it I intend to put it away for extended period of time I wouldn't want dust settling on it, or some scratches appearing on the outside.Another accessory that I found only two weeks later is a nice necklace string to attach to the ocarina. It's nice to see that it wasn't just a string. It has nice greenish beads on it.Only small issue is that it wasn't attached and it might be tricky to attach it the right away so the tin nylon cords don't self untie and cause the instrument to fall.Small Issue: there is one minor problem I found with the instrument coating which is that when you put a mouth to it you can smell the paint or laquer that it is covered it. I think it is just the paint. It does not smell too strong, nor does it really bother me, but it is noticeable and I guess some people may not like it. The coating/paint doesn't "bleed" or smear. The instrument has been baked and dried thoroughly. It's hits the smell.I would subtract half the star from the five stars but since it is not an option I'd rather leave it at five stars.

Exactly what I was looking for! My son is very pleased with it. Seems to be good quality. The protective case, neck strap and song book are very nice additions as well.

Has really good sound compared to other the ocarina we bought in the past. Comes with its own case.

I recently purchased two OcarinaWind Ocarinas: First, the OcarinaWind® 12 Hole White Ocarina Exquisite Craft of Ice-crack,Recommend by Shop Owner, and second Forest Whisper 12 Hole Ocarina Classic Strawfire Masterpiece Collectible,alto C,recommended By Shop Owner. I thought I’d give you my evaluation of each in order to possibly help anyone trying to decide what to buy. I am an amateur musician, a long-time wind instrument player, but rather new to the ocarina.I chose the two ocarinas I bought because they were “recommended by Shop Owner.” I assumed that meant they were of the top quality that OcarinaWind had to offer. And the price was right.First I bought the Ice-Crack White ocarina. I thought it played very well. It is heavy and takes a bit of time to build up the finger muscles to play comfortably for long periods of time, but it doesn’t take long to get used to it. I now play it daily. I thought the sound was very pure, even the upper notes. You had to blow rather forcefully in the upper end of the scale, and rather softly around the low C and lower…making this a rather dynamic instrument. The ability to go from a high note to a low note, and play in tune, will take practice. But the tuning seemed good (once you adjusted your blowing pressure), which was very important to me. I had such success buying this ocarina I bought my second.My second ocarina was the Forest Whisper Strawfire ocarina. I have a very sensitive sense of smell, yet I did not detect much of an odor at all, unless I really put it right against my nose. Even then it was not too strong. I suppose how much of a smoky odor it has will depend on how recently it was made and what sort of ventilation it has been stored in since. This ocarina also had a very beautiful tone and I felt it was rather ergonomic, with the angled mouthpiece. My problem with this ocarina was that the tuning was off. I could not blow softly enough to get the sub notes to sound clearly and on pitch, and I could not blow strongly enough to get the notes around high C and above to sound in pitch; they were flat no matter what I did.So, both ocarinas sounded nice, both arrived in one piece with a nice storage/carrying pouch. In the end, I decided to return the Forest Whisper. If I could not play it on pitch, I knew it was just not going to be played. But I’m keeping the White ocarina, as it plays well. Naturally, each ocarina is somewhat unique. Will I buy more ocarinas? Most definitely. Will I buy more ocarinas from OcarinaWind? I don’t like returning things, so perhaps not. My admittedly limited experience with their ocarinas has me thinking that whether you get a great one or not is, in part, up to chance. The seller was very nice however, emailing me after each purchase to check my satisfaction level.

The media could not be loaded. Beautifully handcrafted. I suggest handling it with great care and respect. First time owning a Ocarina, I look forward to learning how to play this beautiful wind pipe/flute. From playing around with it for a few moments the sounds are so pretty.This came packed with care, comes in a lovely and sturdy case with a cleaning cloth, the instructions booklet, and some kind of hand made necklace. It's a beautiful copper/brown color, I love it!I look forward to years of fun with this piece. Thanks Amazon for another great product.