Interview – Milt
Originally published on The Ocarina Repository by Cambell Baxter, circa July 2013. That site is no longer online; this copy is preserved here from the Internet Archive.
Milt, an Ocarina player from Japan, has kindly agreed to an interview for The Ocarina Repository! With his unique playing style and prowess with the instrument, Milt has made a name for himself among the Western Ocarina community recently. He has delighted us with his unique jazz pieces and integration of the ocarina into contemporary music, giving hope for the future of the instrument in the modern music scene.
Are you ready for the interview? Good! Let’s begin:
- Tell us about yourself!
I am an ocarina player in Japan. I have been teaching how to play ocarina, producing ocarina method books and composing and arranging songs as well. These activities are all based on my determination to attain “peace” through music.
I think music, which I possess in my hand, can contribute to attaining peace, so I decided to become a professional musician for that purpose when I was 19. In that sense, music for me is a mean to attain the peace. I have tried to hold peace concerts in Japan.
I have been also working on peace activities in Cambodia, making it my life to help children without an opportunity to have education, street children and orphans learn music. I hope eventually we could create job for them, for example as musician.
Khmer Ocarina Project (YouTube)
My hobby is to read cartoons (Japanese manga) and play games. I remember I really enjoyed Metal Gear series and Final Fantasy series. When I was a student, I was so into a game called Gran Turismo and achieved the highest speed record at that time. There were trade-offs – I got a callosity on my finger and had to have surgery to get rid of it. I like massively multiplayer online games (MMO) and once I start playing it, I let everything ‘go hang’ including music, so I make it a rule not to touch it now.
I am more of an intuitive but argumentative person. I feel something first intuitively, and later I try to make a theory more concrete. For example, I often develop an ocarina playing method unconsciously and it is fun for me to interpret it theoretically and establish a method in order to teach it to ocarina students. It is very useful.
Many people misunderstand that Milt gives great weight to theoretical concepts, but I am more of a touchy-feely type when I start something new, even for composing, improvising, playing games, etc.
My religion is Buddhism, (SGI). My strong determination to attain peace is based on altruism.
- How did you get started playing the Ocarina?
My father gave me a plastic ocarina on a whim. My father was not up on music at all, and I still do not understand why he gave me the ocarina. I asked him later on why he gave it to me, and he said, “Oh, I have heard that ocarina is famous since Kitaro is playing it”.
Well, my father actually made a mistake – he mistook Kitaro for Sojiro, I guess.
He was really not a music type of person. He was really harsh on me, and so I decided to play ocarina.
While I was practicing, I became able to control it gradually.
- What advice would you give to someone just starting out with the ocarina?
First it is important to learn how to hold ocarina properly. Sax or flute has got keys to close the holes tightly, and the reason why they have got them is that they are essential to play the instrument beautifully, but the ocarina does not have such keys.
You do not worry about it too much though since you can use your fingers like keys. That is why it is important to hold the ocarina properly with proper posture and fingering.
In addition, since the ocarina is a wind instrument, whether you can play it beautifully or not, or how the ocarina sounds depends a great deal on how you control your breath. The diaphragm plays an extremely important role in controlling your breath, so you have to train yourself in order to learn how to control your diaphragm, although it is a bit of a hassle. Try to breathe from your abdomen – it is quite effective.
If possible, I recommend you train your ears in order to have a good sense of musical pitch. Even if you can master how to control your breath, you have to know how much you need to adjust the musical pitch by using your ears. Music dictation training is pretty effective.
- If you had to start again, is there anything you would do differently, knowing what you know now?
I would follow the same road.
- What are some of the big mistakes that new players make that cause trouble later on?
Form, posture, how they hold ocarina, etc. are all important, especially for ‘newbies.’
If you cannot have proper form, posture, or hold the ocarina properly, you may have more serious problem when you move on to latter level of playing.
If there is no concrete base, we cannot construct anything on it.
Another thing is to fall into a bad habit when you blow into your ocarina. Ocarina is closed instrument and has got a round shape as its special characteristics and is not bilaterally symmetric. So we need to use a special technique to blow into such a complicated structured instrument. Although it is difficult to know and master the basics, the newbies tend to ignore it or do not realize it and then may fall into a bad habit without sensing ocarina’s naturally sensitive sound. The worst case is newbies may lose such an important sense. It is quite a common mistake among the ocarina players who learned by themselves without consulting a good teacher or good how-to book. Furthermore, if they try to tune the ocarina under such a condition, that is a disaster. Even if he or she tried to master other skills, or improve their performance skills, the most important factor, “beautiful sound” cannot be realized.
Of course, there is more than one right answer for music and if someone say “hey, it is nice, it is real ocarina sound!”, then Milt cannot argue against it and I do not have the intention to do that. The only thing I can say is I do not want to listen to such a sound based on misconception.
I strongly recommend you to pay attention carefully and thoroughly to the sound of pure, natural sound and pitch of ocarina and to learn how to control the breath when you are still at the beginner level.
- What are some important things that new players tend to neglect?
Maybe the same answer I gave to the question 5.
- If someone is on a budget, what ocarina would you recommend?
There is some kind of trend in the level of breath and it varies from country to country. Japanese tend to have weaker breath compared to people in other countries.
If I would answer to this question from Japanese point of view, I like Kuolong Pan’s ocarina (in Taiwan). His single and multi-chambered ocarinas are both really good. Personally, I think his ocarina is one of the best in the world.
As for AC, I really love Pecorino in Japan, but we need to wait for about 5, 6 years or longer to get it, I recommend my original brand ocarina, INFINITY. That ocarina was developed based on Pecorino for mass production. Although it is mass-produced, it does not have individual difference in sound and pitch. It is an ultimate level of quality for everyone. If you are interested in, please visit my Youtube channel.
- What do you think is the future of the Ocarina world?
I have no idea. If I can get my desire, I would like to have more funky ocarina players in the future.
- What have been your most rewarding experiences with the Ocarina?
I can meet many people and make good friends with them.
That is much more important and valuable for me than money.
- What is your favourite Ocarina?
Pecorino (on which INFINITY was developed).
- What is your favourite Ocarina performance?
It is me!
It is a matter of whether someone likes it or not and it does not matter how much his or her performance is excellent. It makes sense, since I play the ocarina as I wish and that is why I like my ocarina performance.
I try not to listen to performances made by other ocarina players in order to be creative, rather I try to listen to performances made by many other musicians such as pianist, guitarist, sax players, etc.
- Any additional comments/questions/material/shameless plug
The ocarina is a simple musical instrument, and for this reason, I think it has infinite possibilities. I always try to convince myself that a player himself or herself can decide the maximum limit of possibilities. To believe its possibilities, to keep an open mind, and not give up by saying “I cannot do it” in adverse circumstances, can offer an excellent opportunity to grow – that is my philosophy and I will continue to move on in the future.
Of course I am not perfect yet (never be perfect anyway), and that is why I believe that I can grow and improve myself. It is important to believe in my own possibilities and potentialities. I will continue to make a great effort to develop myself to become a musician who can explore more possibilities out of the musical instrument.
Well, that said, we cannot keep motivation for so long if we cannot enjoy ourselves. I could become really good at playing games, magic and ocarina, etc, since I really enjoyed it. Do not forget, “most important thing is to enjoy it” before you become intimidated.
I would like to enjoy myself with a lot of ocarina enthusiasts to the maximum extent.
Please join us, won’t you?
I would love to Milt! 😀
Thank you so much for your interview, and thank you for being our first player to respond to my interview questions! I’m sure everyone enjoyed your answers and gained some insight into your background and why you do what you do. Great stuff! 🙂
For everyone’s information, here are links to Milt’s website, Youtube channel and Facebook page, as well as his Khmer Ocarina Project in Cambodia:
- Milt Ocarina World (English website)
- Milt Ocarina World (Facebook Official Page)
- Milt Official YouTube Channel
- Khmer Ocarina Project in Cambodia (KOP)
And finally, another video!
Ocarina Milt - Spain (Chick Corea) (Youtube)
If you wrote this, or were interviewed in it, and would like it changed or removed, please write to theocarinamuseum@gmail.com.