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Great Fairy Fountain on a real ocarina

On a 12-hole Great Fairy Fountain's main tune opens A, G, F♯, G. It is medium to play and written an octave lower, in A minor, to fit the ocarina.

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Great Fairy Fountain

Bar 1 of 8

A
Ready when you areTap the timeline to start somewhere else.

What are the notes for Great Fairy Fountain?

On a 12-hole. Read left to right, a line at a time.

  1. AGF♯G
    GFEF
    FED♯E
    Tricky spot:EDC♯D
  2. AGF♯G
    A♯AG♯A
    high CA♯AA♯
    AGFE

The repeating melody of the Great Fairy Fountain, as it plays in Ocarina of Time: the lead line of two fan MIDI files made by different people, james_barisax's and Sirius's. They agree on every note and on where each one starts, once the second file's half notes are read as quarter notes; we kept the pace of the first, 80 beats a minute. The first file repeats the eight bars many times and the second plays them twice; we wrote them once. The files reach above the top note of a 12-hole ocarina, so we wrote the tune an octave lower. It moves by half steps, so the staff has no key signature (A minor) and marks each sharp where it falls.

What is the tricky spot in Great Fairy Fountain?

The jump from the D that ends the fourth bar up to the A that starts the fifth, a fifth. Most of the tune before it moves by half steps, so the leap comes as a surprise, and the A needs firmer air than the D. On a 12-hole, Great Fairy Fountain goes from D to A: you lift the left ring, right index, right middle and right ring. On a 6-hole or 4-hole, you lift the left middle and right index.

How do you hold and breathe for Great Fairy Fountain?

There are no long notes, so breathe between the bars: after the fourth bar and after the eighth are the natural places. Keep the air soft and even, with no push on the sharps, so each half step is its own note. To check your breath, hold each note of Great Fairy Fountain in turn and watch it on a tuner such as our free ocarina tuner.

Which ocarina can play Great Fairy Fountain?

Great Fairy Fountain goes from C♯ up to high C. Any 12-hole, 6-hole or 4-hole ocarina in C plays it.

The 11 notes here, on a 12-holeHoles in words, with a picture
NoteHoles to coverPicture
ACover the left pinky, left middle, left index, left thumb and right thumb
GCover every main hole but the right index, right middle, right ring and right pinky
F♯Cover every main hole but the right index, right middle and right pinky
FCover every main hole but the right middle, right ring and right pinky
ECover every main hole but the right ring and right pinky
D♯Cover every main hole but the right ring and right pinky, plus the right sub-hole
DCover every main hole but the right pinky
C♯Cover every main hole but the right pinky, plus the right sub-hole
A♯Cover the left pinky, left index, right ring, left thumb and right thumb
G♯Cover every main hole but the left ring, right index, right middle and right pinky
high CCover the left pinky, left thumb and right thumb

Drawn as you see it while playing: mouthpiece towards you, left hand on the left.

What does the Great Fairy Fountain music sound like?

Zelda Wiki says it is played mostly on a harp and "begins with ethereal upward sweeps, before settling into a repetitive, staccato melody with many chromatic movements and soft harmonies". This page has the repeating melody on its own.

Where does Great Fairy Fountain play in Ocarina of Time?

Zelda Wiki lists the Fairy Fountains and the Great Fairy Fountains as the places it plays, says it first appeared in A Link to the Past and has since been in many of the series' games, and notes that a version without the opening sweeps plays on the file-selection screen in nearly every game. Wikipedia credits the music of Ocarina of Time to Koji Kondo.

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