Somewhat like the physical instrument of the same name, Ocarina provides four virtual “holes” on the iPhone’s screen. To play the instrument you gently blow into the iPhone’s microphone port while covering and uncovering those holes to change the instrument’s pitch. The resulting sound is a cross between an electronic penny-whistle and recorder. You can add vibrato to the sound by tilting the iPhone down. You can alter the volume of Ocarina by blowing more or less gently. Ocarina can play in the seven traditional Western scales—Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aolian, and Locrian—and a special eighth scale, Zeldarian. You can choose the root note for each scale starting with C on through two octaves of the chromatic scale. Ocarina is a lot of fun to play once you get the hang of the fingerings—all of which you can find at Smule’s Ocarina site—and the interface is beautiful. The icing on this musical cake is the sharing element. Just tap the Globe icon that appears at the bottom of the screen and you can listen to recordings of other Ocarina players from around the world. As people are still stumbling around Ocarina and players have no choice about which of their noodlings gets recorded and sent to the rest of the world (though you do have the option to not share your melodies), much of what you hear isn’t terribly musical. Eventually some decent players will emerge and your explorations will likely get more melodious.