Harmony Ocarina "Ivy"

This is my first ocarina and it has been a blast to learn. Each chamber has beautiful sounding notes that only need a relaxed breath pressure.
The only gripe I have with this instrument is it's shape and hole placement. It is very thin and the holes on the left hand chamber are pretty close together, along with no divots to help guide your fingers back into place. I have thin fingers so I'm able to cover the holes but not without getting my hands into a strange, tight sandwhich grip. I feel like I'm forcing my fingers into a tighter unnatural position half the time since I have to slightly squish em together to properly cover the holes on the left chamber. Right now its a big strain on my hands and wrists. Given I'm still figuring it all out so it may just be part of the learning curve.
All in all its a lovely instrument but If you have thicker fingers then it might be near impossible for you to play the left side due to the spacing between the holes.

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!

Looks beautiful and sounds amazing. The holes are spaced for smaller fingers and are hard to feel. Will definitely take some getting used to

Haven't received my ocarina before I was asked to give a review, but I'm giving this five stars because I know the ocarina is going to be stellar. Shipping is a bit slow but I completely understand as a niche business. If you're looking for high quality products,
I definitely recommend shopping with STL. Just be aware that shipping may be a bit slow so make sure to order in advance :)

After a few days of practicing I’m really getting this down, love the sound and quality of the instrument. Will be a continuing customer.