Smule’s Ocarina has a very simple interface. In the main operating mode you have four circles that represent the air holes on the instrument and an indicator on the bottom that shows the intensity of the air being blown. You play the instrument by blowing into he microphone, and have the combinations of pressing or not pressing the circles to determine the notes. I admit that I was skeptical when I first tried this, but it works really well in practice. After working out where to blow for the best sound I was playing notes clearly within a few minutes. If you tap on the indicator at the bottom you get a menu with four options: he ocarina, a globe, preferences, and an information button that has links to tutorials.
The preferences allow you to change the root note and the sound of the instrument. As a nod to the videogame fans, there is a “Zeldarian” mode. On the ocarana site, you can find a growing number of songs being adapted to the Ocarina. Smile makes a nice score generator for users to use so they can share their creations. I’m addition to the many Zelda themes, there are a lot of good adaptations. The one downside to he music on the site is the lack of note length and rests. If you don’t know what a song is supposed to sound like, chances are that it won’t sound right.

The globe icon brings up a darkened globe with lights scattered over it indicating Ocarina users. One light has a DNA-like spiral coming up and plays the music from that user. It is amazing to hear how good some people are with this already. For those of us that aren’t experts yet, I haven’t seen an opt-out option other than not allowing the app to use your location. That should really be made more clear.

In the end, Smule’s Ocarina is a polished application that shows what out of the box ideas can do with the iPhone. My wife and I spent an hour playing with it, and it has renewed a desire to start playing music again. I highly recommend this application. Thanks to Lawson for telling me about this app!

For an example of Ocarina in action, take a look at this video from the Ocarina website:

Title: Ocarina
Publisher: Smule
Price: $0.99 (Introductory special)
Rating: 4/5