Basic Ocarina or Clay Whistle
Mouse ocarina made in my clay camp by Kaito
Horse ocarina made in my clay camp by
Click here to listen to what my basic ocarina sounds like
In addition to tending to my website and blog the past week, I’ve been teaching a kid’s clay camp at the Art Student’s League of Denver called, “Making Music with Clay” for 1st and 2nd graders from 9am to 12pm daily. I originally proposed the class for an older age group, but was asked if I’d be willing to give it a go with a younger aged group by the programming director for the league. I was a little nervous about it because I’ve never taught a clay class to anyone younger than second grade, but agreed to try it. If all else failed, I knew we could always make a lot of little pots and sculptures. My lesson plan this week included making rattles, whistles and drums with the freedom to modify as I saw fit.
We made rattles the first day and they were a hit. I think kids love anything that makes sound and got such a kick out of the fact that they made this from a lump of clay. We attempted whistles the 2nd day – which after plenty of research turned out fantastically well. No one was more surprised and delighted than myself to hear all these great whistle sounds coming from all around the room.
Luckily, I had an assistant helping me who is going to be a sophomore at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who was really into making whistles despite the fact that his concentration is painting. I wonder if I may have converted someone to clay because he told me he was interested in taking a clay class now after helping me. Uh oh – watch out, it’s addicting!
My initial goal was to just make a simple whistle sound with no additional holes, however, my helper decided to add some to the whistle he made following the instructions that I had printed out in preparation for the class. He was like the pied piper and had all the kids following him.
The key to getting it to whistle is proper placement of the hole in the body which needs to align with the flare of the form directly next to the extended mouth piece
I ended up ditching the drum project and we made some wind chimes instead the third day of class, then after asking the class what they wanted to make the 4th day, everyone agreed that they wanted to make ocarinas, which is a flute like wind instrument often made from clay.
Normally an ocarina is oval shaped and has anywhere from 4 to 12 finger openings and an extended mouth piece. Ours only have 3 finger openings, but now I’d love to play around and make some with proper hole placement. I punched the holes in the bodies sort of willy nilly – but you’ll have to forgive my faux pas because this is the first time I’ve ever made any whistles with finger holes.
Previously I’ve made whistles with kids and have had limited success creating a whistle sound. This time, I sort of flipped back and forth to the different instructions offered by 3 different people and I made every single one of them whistle. Here’s the down side of working with kids this young – while they constructed the bodies and mouth pieces themselves, I had to do the work to make their pieces whistle. The upside is that after working on 15 of them, I know how to do it now with minimal effort or adjustment.
Here are the sites that I used that I thought had the best information about ocarinas and how to make them:
- Ocarina Room by Kenji Ogawa from Japan
- How to Make a Clay Whistle by Dwight U. Bartholomew
- Make a Clay Whistle by Chris Henley
The ones I made with my class are sort of a hybrid of the 3 different artist’s linked to above. It was sort of fun the day we made these – we had all sorts of kids wandering into my class to find the source of the whistle sounds. I even had some older kids tell me that their class was boring and they wanted to be in mine. Of course I enjoyed this immensely since this is the first time I’ve taught week long art camps at the ASLD and Anderson Ranch and had been feeling a little insecure.
Well, that’s it for now and yes, that’s my voice if you clicked on the Listen link at the top of this post. I found this really cool free download to record music and sound from a microphone. You’ll have to excuse my ums and ahs (I tried practicing, but they came out anyway) and the whining of one of my dogs in the background – she really doesn’t like any kind of whistle apparently.
Have a great weekend,
~Cynthia
BTW, it helps to have a strong tolerance for noise and chaos when working with small children especially when they get excited!
Mary T.
August 16, 2008 at 9:24 am //
It is obvious you love kids in a way I do not. I so admire the people who enjoy teaching kids no matter where. While for me, working the desk at the children center in church is enough, I see the teacher really excited and so full of ideas and happy to be doing the work. I admire it from afar, doing copies, cutting stuff out,coloring stuff and odd bits of things, as I don’t like the hands on. I can tell from your post how much you enjoy it and how gratifying it is for you. It is great you are willing to struggle with the artist vs. teacher thing because you are so good at both.
Ben Stark
August 16, 2008 at 10:23 am //
That is so cool that it was a success! I would have been a little doubtful that first and second graders could make clay whistles, but it looks like with the right teacher, you can get them to do just about anything!
Cynthia
August 16, 2008 at 12:22 pm //
Mary – I think it takes a certain personality to work with young kids. They’re rambunctious, likely to tattle on their classmates, unpredictable, have short attention spans, ask a lot of questions, prone to throwing clay at a classmate or maybe even tasting it themselves, and are likely to stand up spontaneously just to spin around in a circle to make themselves dizzy just for fun.
But, they are also lovable, incredibly creative, willing to take risks because they don’t have any preconceived notions about making art, and know when they’re finished working on a piece.
I often have to resist the urge to nudge a kid into adding a few additional details. When I have done that, the child will respond, “Nope, I’m done.” Fini, c’est tout – nothing else to add. They don’t go through any angst ridden questioning or self doubts. It just is what it is. I love that and like seeing their faces light up when they proudly show their parents their creations!
Ben, I am part coach and motivator. It also helps to lord snack/play time in front of them. Okay, so I also bribe just a bit.
Janet
August 16, 2008 at 2:00 pm //
Can you do the macaraina while playing the ocarina?
Very cute. Nice that that older kids wanted to join in.
LB
August 16, 2008 at 7:35 pm //
The clay animals are the best! I would love to take a class with you and learn how to make my own!
Also, thanks for becoming a fan of my work on Facebook – you rock!
Lynette
August 16, 2008 at 8:25 pm //
arrh, I just lost my comment but I’m trying again. Cyn, I bet your students really love your class and I enjoyed listenting to you tell how to cover the different holes to make the different sounds in your whistle. Awesomely fun creativity for the students (and the teacher too hehe!) Great post!
Janet
August 18, 2008 at 4:51 am //
I just listened to the audio. I can just imagine what that must have sounded like when all the kids were playing theirs.
patricia griffin
August 18, 2008 at 11:47 am //
Hey, a mouse ocarina! Now, wouldn’t that be the perfect thing for my “clay mouse studio”?
Love reading your blog and all your helpful info and insights… And thanks for checking out mine. You won the last Famous Potter Challenge!
Linda Starr
August 18, 2008 at 9:21 pm //
whoa, your blog is changed again. I can’t keep up. I just love ocarinas, have only made one ceramic flute and had quite a bit of trouble making it play. I can’t imagine what it would be like teaching such young aged children, but you have succeeded once again. I would like to make more, as LB said, a class from you would be great fun. thanks for all the links of how to make ocarinas.
Undaunted
August 19, 2008 at 4:30 pm //
These are great! Thanks for posting the “how to” links. Each time I come here and see something new I think “That’s the first thing I’m going to make at my class” and then I come back and see something else! Thanks for being so inspiring.
Cynthia
August 20, 2008 at 6:43 am //
No Macarena – we’re good, but not that good, Janet!
Oh, yeah – whistle noise x 15 a cacophony of sound punctuated with “he hit me” etc. etc.
Hey LB- anytime you’re in Denver, look me up!
Sorry about that Lynette – that happened to me the other day too. I think I fixed it though.
The funny thing about the boy who made the mouse, Patricia, is that he was one of my kids who wasn’t terribly into it and was there for the socialization until we made this project and he ran with it.
Hey Linda – long time no see! More changes to come, but they’ll be gradual as I find time to work on my site. I need to make some work again…
Hi Linda (undaunted) they’re very cool, yet slightly frustrating if you can’t make them whistle the first time. Check those links out (print them) and really look at the hole placement on all the different styles.