How to hold an ocarina

Updated 2026-10-28

Hold a 12-hole ocarina level, with the mouthpiece towards you and your hands coming at it from opposite sides: the left palm facing you, the right palm facing away. Each finger covers its hole with the flat pad, and the right thumb, kept straight, carries most of the weight. A pendant is simpler: index and middle fingers on the four holes on top, thumbs underneath. Either way, hold it loosely; a well-made ocarina balances in your hands.

The diagrams on this page are drawn from our fingering charts, with each hole numbered, beside a table of which finger covers it. If you don't know which kind you have, our page What is an ocarina? shows the types.

Which finger covers which hole on a 12-hole ocarina?

Each finger has its own hole. On each hand the pinky, ring, middle and index fingers cover the four holes on top from the outside in, each thumb covers a hole underneath, and the two small sub-holes sit beside the middle fingers: 12 holes in all. Pure Ocarinas calls that layout, the one drawn here, Taiwanese; on an ocarina with Japanese sub-holes, the right-hand sub-hole sits by the right index finger instead. In the diagram the mouthpiece is the stub at the bottom edge, nearest you, and the thumb holes on the underside are drawn below it.

• Cover each hole with the pad of your finger, the flat part opposite the nail. You can feel the edge of the hole under the pad; keep the hole in the middle of it.
• For a sub-hole, Pure Ocarinas describes "sliding a finger forwards, covering two holes at once": the middle finger keeps its own hole covered and reaches the small one beside it too.
• There is one more hole underneath, the voicing, where the sound comes out. It is never covered.

How can you tell if your fingers are covering the holes?

When a note doesn't sound true, Howard Fosdick's course names a hole left even slightly uncovered as the most likely cause. Play a slow scale into a tuner such as our free tuner and watch for a note that sits out of line with its neighbours every time you play it; a note that only wobbles is more likely your breath. Then check that each covering finger seals its hole, and play the note again. If it is still off with every hole sealed, see Is my ocarina out of tune, or is it me?. Pure Ocarinas lists covering a hole with the tip of the finger under poor hand posture, one of its seven common ocarina mistakes, because it tends to force the fingers into a scrunched position.

Where does the right hand go?

The right hand does most of the holding. Its thumb covers the thumb hole nearest the tail and should stay straight and as level as you can make it, because it carries most of the ocarina's weight. Slant the hand a little to the left, and let the ring finger overhang its hole if that makes the pinky hole easier to reach. In a mirror, your fingers should look roughly parallel, each with a gentle curve.

If your thumbs bend backwards (hitchhiker's thumb), keep the right one straight in your resting hold. Pure Ocarinas warns that a bent-back thumb supports the ocarina poorly and can make the joint ache, and that holding it straight becomes automatic after a few days.

Where does the left hand go?

The left hand is the right hand turned round: palm towards you, fingers gently curved over the four left holes. It is hard to see from where you are, so check it in a mirror. Pure Ocarinas: "I strongly recommend using a mirror to check the position of your left hand, as it is near impossible to see otherwise." On ocarinas whose pinky hole sits on the side, keep the left palm fairly upright so the pinky can brace the instrument; if the left thumb hole is flat on the bottom, that may mean covering it with the tip of the thumb.

How tightly should you hold an ocarina?

Lightly. New players often grip hard for fear of dropping it, which stiffens the fingers and makes the hands ache. Try both ends: hold it so loosely that it wobbles, then so tightly that your fingertips turn white, then settle between the two. Pure Ocarinas: "Ocarinas are designed to balance between the right thumb and pinky finger when held parallel to the ground."

Keep the ocarina level and look straight ahead. Looking down tips the weight onto the left pinky, one of your weakest fingers, and Pure Ocarinas names that as one cause of sore hands; a music stand at eye level helps. Stand, or sit upright on the front edge of a chair, with your wrists straight and your elbows down and a little away from your body.

How do you hold an ocarina on the high notes?

On the high notes most holes are open, so fewer fingers are holding on. Pure Ocarinas' method on a C ocarina: from G upwards, rest the right pinky on the tail beside its hole, which is enough support up to high D. For high E and F, press the left index finger, held upright, against the ocarina at the spot Pure Ocarinas calls the cappello, then roll the right thumb off its hole. Practise the change with the four top notes in a loop: high C, D, E, F, E, D. Our 12-hole chart shows those fingerings, and if the high notes still sound thin, see why high notes go airy or flat.

How do you hold a pendant ocarina?

On a pendant only the index and middle fingers cover the holes on top: index fingers on the two nearest the mouthpiece, middle fingers on the two beyond them. A 6-hole adds a thumb hole for each thumb on the underside, which this diagram draws either side of the mouthpiece.

The ring and little fingers have no holes. Howard Fosdick's pendant course says to use them "to steady your hold, or just let them dangle." On a 6-hole, the thumbs cover the two holes underneath, and stay down for most notes. A 4-hole has no thumb holes, so rest your thumbs underneath wherever feels comfortable.

Keep your fingers "flat across the ocarina", in Fosdick's words, "not curled above the holes". The 6-hole and 4-hole charts show which holes each note covers.