Profile of Daniel P. Peden
Hello. My name is Daniel Peden.
I am the one who started Ace Ocarinas, manages the site, and hand makes the ocarinas sold here.
I am currently 19 and officially started the business in late 2012 then under the name DanielOcarinas.
I am the one who started Ace Ocarinas, manages the site, and hand makes the ocarinas sold here.
I am currently 19 and officially started the business in late 2012 then under the name DanielOcarinas.
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I used to rent space in a kiln owned by a local pottery maker and fire the ocarinas I would work late nights on in my basement. Because I was renting space in a kiln I did not have many options when it came to what clay and glaze I used. I was restricted to high temp. pottery clay and water based glaze both of which fired at cone 6 making the ocarinas hard to work with but very strong in the end.
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After the ocarinas were finished I would sell them in a small cart at the Granville Market every week. During that time I only handed out small slips of paper with my youtube link on them as did not have my own website yet. My youtube started in 2011 and was only for videos of me playing ocarinas in my own collection, often to covers of songs running in the background playing on external speakers.
The first time I had seen a ocarina up close was the video game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
I though it was a very cool instrument and wanted one of my own. I had a little experience with the recorder in Middle School and was pretty good at it. I was 1 of 2 people who was good enough at the flute to play it on stage at the end of the school year. I had searched a little online for a ocarina before my summer math teacher heard that I was looking for one and gave one to me.
The first time I had seen a ocarina up close was the video game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
I though it was a very cool instrument and wanted one of my own. I had a little experience with the recorder in Middle School and was pretty good at it. I was 1 of 2 people who was good enough at the flute to play it on stage at the end of the school year. I had searched a little online for a ocarina before my summer math teacher heard that I was looking for one and gave one to me.
Her son has purchased it at the Ohio Renaissance Festival and was heading off to collage. He did not want the ocarina any more so I ended up with it in the end. After I got it I took it home and learned my first song on it in 30 minutes. The Song of Time form The Legend of Zelda. A song I now know on every ocarina I have ever made.
After this I eventually started a collection of ocarinas, each one different and unique allowing me to play many different songs. Once I was good enough at playing these ocarinas I decided to share my music with the world by creating a small youtube channel specifically for it called DanielOcarinas.
This is where the original name of my business came from.
This is where the original name of my business came from.
Daniel's original ocarina collection.
Over time as I built up my collection and learned more songs for my growing channel, purchasing certain ocarinas I needed online was becoming expensive and I wanted ocarinas to be a certain way but custom orders from big businesses was even more expensive. So I decided to try and make my own ocarinas. I had a lot of experience with clay from school and it was easily my favorite thing about art class. At the time though I did not have access to any clay let alone a kiln so I tried the only thing available at the time.
Oven Clay. Oven clay was terrible to work with as it gets softer the more you work with it and is very weak and near impossible to work with. After 3 attempts at an ocarina nothing worked until my 4th attempt.
Oven Clay. Oven clay was terrible to work with as it gets softer the more you work with it and is very weak and near impossible to work with. After 3 attempts at an ocarina nothing worked until my 4th attempt.
After hours of work I got it to make a sound, and then as I added holes I worked on it to make better less airy sounds until finally I had a working 4-hole ocarina. Because of how hard oven clay is to work with smoothing the ocarina out was impossible so it came out looking terrible but when I played the ocarina it sounded pretty good. I knew that I was onto something so eventually I got a hold of real pottery clay thanks to pottery classes I was taking over the summer and started making many ocarinas.
The first ocarina I ever made of real clay was a simple green inline ocarina. It had 7 holes giving it the same range as the previous oven clay pendant ocarina I had made. As I thought, it was much easier to work with real clay and the ocarinas came out much smoother. Not only that but they sounded better and were much stronger then the oven clay ocarinas.
As my youtube channel was just starting to become popular and sales were doing fair I realized that I had to expand my reach and start selling online. I worked hard creating a website to sell my ocarinas and once my website grew and my sales improved I finally was able to work up enough money to buy my own kiln. With my own kiln I did not have to pay a renting fee and fire at a certain time. I could fire whenever I needed to and could use my own glaze and clay. Because of the clay I had left over and how use to cone 6 clay I all ready was I decided to continue using different types of clay that fire at cone 6.
I did change the glaze I used to a type of glaze that is painted on rather then dunked in glaze. This made the glaze colors look much more solid and clean and I have been using paint on glaze ever since. Over time I became much better at making my ocarinas. I could make them faster while still making them look and sound better. I started creating more types of ocarinas as thanks to my original collection I knew how to make all sorts of ocarinas such as Pendant, Transverse, Inline, and eventually...
The First Multi-Chamber Ocarinas
Once I was consistently good at making 10-11 hole transverse ocarinas I decided to try something i had never done before. Make a Double Ocarina. I had never tried something like this before. I studied a plastic triple ocarina I ordered online to see how Multi-Chamber Ocarinas were made. It seemed to be that a 2nd ocarina was simply added to the side of the original chamber. Unfortunately it was not as simple as I had first hoped. Keeping both chambers in tune with each other was a task but on top of that the first chamber would dry faster then I could tune it. Because of that the 2nd chamber would crack before they even had a chance to be fired. To solve this I wrote all of the notes down on a paper and drew pictures of what holes were covered to make each note. As I studied the chart I could figure out what key the 2nd chamber should start in by what key the first chamber was all ready in. This way I did not have to completely tune the first chamber before adding the 2nd. I only needed to know the first note of the first chamber.
And it worked! I was finally able to create my first working double ocarina. If the 2nd chamber was too low pitched I would simply flatten it a little or add a small tuning hole to the side. If it was too high I would expand the chamber or simply cut of the original and add a larger one. The more I practiced the better I got at predicting the size of the 2nd chamber.
After the success of the first double ocarina I was ready to try something a little different. A Harmony Ocarina. Harmony ocarinas have 2 chambers like double ocarinas but are meant to be played together rather the one at a time. I created a simple prototype which was basically 2 inline ocarinas with unique fingering stuck together and tuned for harmony. This first prototype used a similar fingering to the older Wooden Hind Harmony Ocarina I had in my personal collection but I had improved it by splitting the small holes that were required to be covered half way for many notes. Splitting them into two separate holes made the prototype actually easier to play then my Wooden Hind Ocarina. I started to take this new ocarina with me when I would perform at the Granville Market. The harmonious sound caught the attention of many people and helped improve sales greatly up until a customer convinced me to sell them the original prototype.
Despite my telling them that it was just a prototype and not a finished design they were still very interested and eventually purchased the ocarina from me. Now with my most unique ocarina gone I needed to create a new one. A final version of my original Harmony Ocarina design. The only issues I had with the original were the unusual shape and how the right side was heavier then the left. To fix this I tried to recreate the prototype into a dick shape but this was far to complicated to make consistently so I scrapped the idea.
Despite my telling them that it was just a prototype and not a finished design they were still very interested and eventually purchased the ocarina from me. Now with my most unique ocarina gone I needed to create a new one. A final version of my original Harmony Ocarina design. The only issues I had with the original were the unusual shape and how the right side was heavier then the left. To fix this I tried to recreate the prototype into a dick shape but this was far to complicated to make consistently so I scrapped the idea.
Then one day while practicing with my old plastic triple ocarina it hit me. The plastic triple ocarina was much heavier on one side then the other but you never notice it because of how you hold the ocarina.
The shape of a Transverse Ocarina is perfect for uneven weight. So I thought, Why not turn a normal Double Ocarina into a Harmony Ocarina by simply making a smaller 1st chamber that only has holes on one side? The original Harmony Ocarina design though had the larger chamber on the right side not left though. So how to fix the issue of the larger chamber being on the wrong side? Simple.
The shape of a Transverse Ocarina is perfect for uneven weight. So I thought, Why not turn a normal Double Ocarina into a Harmony Ocarina by simply making a smaller 1st chamber that only has holes on one side? The original Harmony Ocarina design though had the larger chamber on the right side not left though. So how to fix the issue of the larger chamber being on the wrong side? Simple.
Mirror the entire Ocarina! Left Handed Transverse Ocarinas are just Inverted versions of the original Transverse Ocarina. So why not make a Harmony Transverse Ocarina inverted? That is exactly what I did and it worked very well. This became my new design for a long time.
As I played this ocarina over time I noticed a few areas that the Harmony Design could be improved. For one, Those who all ready play Transverse Ocarinas are use to the heavier lower pitched side being on the left hand rather then right but the main issue I had with the design is that in harmony the range was limited to that of a simple 4-hole pendant ocarina and had more complicated fingering. So the question now in my mind was "Why do we need 5 to 7 holes to play the same range as a 4 hole ocarina?" Once this harmony ocarina had sold I began work on a new harmony ocarina design.
I eventually came up with a rough idea for a new harmony ocarina. Have the Lower Chamber be on the Left and higher on the right like a normal Double Ocarina and have the fingering be the fingering of a Pendant Ocarina. That way those familiar with Pendant Ocarinas would be able to pick up on Harmony Ocarinas much easier as they do not have to learn entirely new fingering to play them. An additional thumb hole on the bottom will also increase the range of each chamber for more range in harmony songs.
Sooner then I thought I had the chance to test my new design. The Atwoods who are friends of mine from my church asked me to create a ocarina for them that Roman Atwood could give to his son for his birthday.
They only asked that it looks like a traditional ocarina, has a good range, and is easy to play. So I started work on the new Ocarina. A Double Harmony Ocarina like my new design can have an extended range by switching between the two chambers like you would on a double ocarina. It is not the 2 octave range of a double ocarina but 1.5 octave range is still a good extended range and the fingering of the Harmony Ocarina is very simple to understand compared to actual double ocarinas. I soon finished the ocarina.
As I played this ocarina over time I noticed a few areas that the Harmony Design could be improved. For one, Those who all ready play Transverse Ocarinas are use to the heavier lower pitched side being on the left hand rather then right but the main issue I had with the design is that in harmony the range was limited to that of a simple 4-hole pendant ocarina and had more complicated fingering. So the question now in my mind was "Why do we need 5 to 7 holes to play the same range as a 4 hole ocarina?" Once this harmony ocarina had sold I began work on a new harmony ocarina design.
I eventually came up with a rough idea for a new harmony ocarina. Have the Lower Chamber be on the Left and higher on the right like a normal Double Ocarina and have the fingering be the fingering of a Pendant Ocarina. That way those familiar with Pendant Ocarinas would be able to pick up on Harmony Ocarinas much easier as they do not have to learn entirely new fingering to play them. An additional thumb hole on the bottom will also increase the range of each chamber for more range in harmony songs.
Sooner then I thought I had the chance to test my new design. The Atwoods who are friends of mine from my church asked me to create a ocarina for them that Roman Atwood could give to his son for his birthday.
They only asked that it looks like a traditional ocarina, has a good range, and is easy to play. So I started work on the new Ocarina. A Double Harmony Ocarina like my new design can have an extended range by switching between the two chambers like you would on a double ocarina. It is not the 2 octave range of a double ocarina but 1.5 octave range is still a good extended range and the fingering of the Harmony Ocarina is very simple to understand compared to actual double ocarinas. I soon finished the ocarina.
The ocarina was a success! I made the ocarina of porcelain and carved the "Smile More" logo into the chamber and gave the ocarina a bold red glaze. With two separate holes to blow into on the mouth piece it is easy to learn each part of the song separately and then learn to play the two parts together. It also means that Harmony is optional and it will play as a normal single chamber ocarina if needed or the chambers can be used separately to extend the range from 1.1 octaves to 1.5. I described it as the swiss army knife of ocarinas. As Roman's son gets older he can learn more tricks on his ocarina which maintains it's simple fingering.
This new ocarina design is sure to define Ace Ocarinas as it has all ready lead to the very popular One Handed Inline Ocarina design which can be played by either the right of left hand with the same fingering.
This new ocarina design is sure to define Ace Ocarinas as it has all ready lead to the very popular One Handed Inline Ocarina design which can be played by either the right of left hand with the same fingering.
Ace Ocarinas Final Name Creation.
Between the time of the original Harmony Ocarinas and the new versions we ended up having to move to a new town. After we were finally moved in and I had my tools for making ocarinas set up I decided it was time to really move forward with DanielOcarinas. Starting with a name change. DanielOcarinas had always been a temporary name but I had loss track of time and never got around to naming it. I needed something easy to remember but something that stood for the high quality workmanship we strive for.
I chose the name Ace Ocarinas as the adjective of Ace means excellent, first-rate, or outstanding.
The simple name is easily recognized and the Ace Symbol is a nice design I stamp onto my ocarinas.
I chose the name Ace Ocarinas as the adjective of Ace means excellent, first-rate, or outstanding.
The simple name is easily recognized and the Ace Symbol is a nice design I stamp onto my ocarinas.
Ocarinas from this point on we follow a more strict standard quality and are narrowing down the amount of old designs that require unique fingering while we improve on common designs. It can be something
as simple as splitting the small hole on pendant ocarinas or creating innovative designs with the new easy to play Harmony Ocarinas.
as simple as splitting the small hole on pendant ocarinas or creating innovative designs with the new easy to play Harmony Ocarinas.
This is where we currently are in our businesses history. Only the future will tell what happens next.