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The Ocarina in Video Games: How a Clay Flute Became Magic
Why the ocarina became gaming's most magical instrument: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Koji Kondo's music, songs that change the world, and how to go from a game controller to a real ocarina.
Ask people where they first heard of the ocarina, and many will name a video game. For a generation of players, a small clay flute stopped being a folk curiosity and became something magical: an instrument whose songs could open doors, call the rain and turn night into day.
1998: Ocarina of Time
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, released by Nintendo in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, the ocarina is not decoration. It's in the title, and it's one of the hero's most important tools. Players learn short melodies over the course of the adventure and play them on the controller's buttons, one button for each note. The music was composed by Koji Kondo, who also wrote many of Nintendo's best-known themes.
The game is often named among the best video games ever made, and its ocarina melodies became some of the best-known tunes in gaming. For many players it was the first time they had heard of the instrument, and it is widely credited with a rise in interest in the real ocarina.
Music that does something
What made the ocarina feel magical is that playing it changed the world. In the game, songs work like spells: one brings the rain, one turns day into night, others carry you to faraway places or call your horse. Music stopped being something in the background and became an action, and the player became the musician.
The ocarina came back in Majora's Mask (2000), where its songs matter even more, including one that turns back time. Ocarina of Time itself returned in 2011, remade for the Nintendo 3DS, and a second remake, for the Nintendo Switch 2, was set for release on 5 November 2026. Later Zelda games gave the hero other instruments: a conductor's baton in The Wind Waker, a pan flute in Spirit Tracks and a harp in Skyward Sword.
Why the ocarina suits a fantasy world
- It looks ancient. A small, round clay instrument looks like something found in a ruin, and vessel flutes really are thousands of years old (read the history of the ocarina).
- Its sound is pure. An ocarina's tone has very few overtones, so it sounds soft, round and a little otherworldly (read how an ocarina works).
- It's small and simple. It fits in a pocket or hangs from a cord, and a few notes are enough for a tune you'd recognise.
From buttons to a real ocarina
In a game, every note is one button. A real ocarina asks more of you, and gives more back:
- Fingers, not buttons: each note is a pattern of covered and open holes (its fingering), and moving smoothly from one note to the next takes practice.
- Breath is part of the note: blow too softly and the note goes flat, too hard and it goes sharp.
- Choosing an ocarina: the 12-hole transverse ocarina is the most common choice for playing many songs. Small pendant ocarinas with 4 or 6 holes are simpler and cheaper, with fewer notes.
Learning to play
Game melodies belong to their composers and publishers, so Potato Flute doesn't teach them. It teaches the instrument itself: how to hold it, cover the holes and breathe, note by note, with folk songs and classical melodies. Its free lessons listen to your ocarina through the microphone, and the fingering chart shows every note for 12-, 10-, 6- and 4-hole ocarinas.
Potato Flute is not connected to Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda and Ocarina of Time are trademarks of Nintendo.
More from the ocarina library
- How to Make a Clay Ocarina: Step-by-Step DIY GuideLearn how to make a real playing clay ocarina from scratch: pinch pot forming, carving the windway and labium cutting edge, tuning toneholes, and firing.
- How to Make an Ocarina from a Real PotatoYes, a real potato can be an ocarina. How to hollow it, carve the windway and sound edge, tune the finger holes, and why it only lasts a day or two.
- A History of the Ocarina: From Ancient Vessel Flutes to BudrioExplore the fascinating 12,000-year history of the ocarina: Neolithic flutes like the Runik ocarina, Chinese xun, Mesoamerican clay instruments, and Giuseppe Donati's 1853 invention in Italy.
- Classical Musicians and Composers Who Embraced the OcarinaDiscover the classical repertoire of the ocarina: from the 19th-century Budrio septets to 20th-century avant-garde masterpieces by György Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki.
- How an Ocarina Works: The Acoustics of Helmholtz ResonanceUnderstand the physics of the ocarina: why hole position doesn't matter, how chamber volume sets pitch, and why breath pressure controls intonation.
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