Harmony Ocarina "Ivy"

Harmony Ocarina "Ivy"

This ocarina actually has a resonating sound when played right, but can actually take some time to learn as it is not exactly like the usual ocarinas so the fingering could take time to get use to. But it's actually not a bad price for a multi chamber variant especially with it's quality, I will agree that the back of the holes are a bit unnecessary as it would be a bit easier as a six-hole per side with the back having only one on each side rather than two being a bit too close. Other than that it's a very beautiful and great sounding instrument.

While you can definitely find better harmony options out there, this is pretty nice for what it is.

My biggest issue is how the ocarina is held. The design requires a pinching grip to hold the ocarina in place, and sliding between the index fingers and thumbs is not ergonomically friendly at all.

The holes are too close together which makes it uncomfortable for anyone with normal sized hands.
The spear design makes playing high notes quite a challenge. It gets unstable very quickly.

The Ivy only plays a diatonic octave in each chamber. It’s a pity, seven holes went towards the intuitiveness of the fingerings instead of range extension, and yet the split thumb hole creates such a large and avoidable problem.

There is some good; the tone is beautiful when played well, it’s very in tune, chamber balance is great and if you only play the chambers separate it’s not difficult to hold. The tone is great for fantasy music. All and all this ocarina is good for those seeking a challenge.

Harmony Ocarina "Ivy"

Ivy has a lovely tone and is beautifully in tune with itself on most of its common notes (the common b is a little iffy on my Ivy). The breath pressure seems to be well matched between the two chambers. The tone on my Ivy's higher chamber is slightly husky, but I think it blends well with the clearer tone of the lower chamber. I feared the spacing (the two chambers a sixth apart instead of a fifth) would be confusing, but instead it works well, giving you an octave and five notes of total range, and a major scale on the right and the complementary minor on the left. The smaller hole used to go between the 3rd and 4th of the major scale (or the 2nd and 3rd of the minor scale) can be covered or uncovered out of sequence to make a number of handy sharps and flats--a point that both Ivy's fingering chart and the Ivy Songbook neglect to mention, I might add, so if you got those, try it out and pencil that in. If you want those "optional" accidentals on Greensleeves, that's how to get them!
The fingering is unusual but deeply intuitive once you get used to it, the main challenge is finding and fully sealing all the holes you want to seal to get a given pitch. This is especially tricky on the left hand side, and may be impossible for players with thick fingers. The temptation is to squeeze harder, since this would help on a lot of wind instruments, but with Ivy it will 1) make your thumbs hurt in short order and 2) make your fingertips spread out, which will make it even harder to play the left hand side. I recommend instead starting with slow practice, holding lightly, on each side by itself to learn exactly where to place your fingertips, and acquire a habit of holding the instrument lightly. I have been doing a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the evening, starting with plain scales and moving on to playing songs by ear, and feel like I've made significant progress in the past week, but am not yet where I want to be.
The Ivy Songbook has only five songs, which is understandable given the clunky and space-requiring nature of ocarina tabs and especially Ivy tabs, but is something you might want to bear in mind. Jen's Song from The Dark Crystal is not one of them but Ivy tablature for Jen's Song is available free from STL's website's library section (pick "library" at the top of the screen, don't wander off into "accessories/sheet music" by mistake), so that's a sixth song.
I'm very happy I got Ivy and hoping to learn to play it well enough to do it justice!