When you hear the word “oca­ri­na”, what do you think of? Well, for me, the first thing that came to mind is The Leg­end of Zel­da. Though I haven’t played the 1999 Game of the Year, I still hear that mem­o­rable tune/soundtrack play­ing in my head when I think of Zel­da.

Upon hear­ing that some­one made an appli­ca­tion for it on the iPhone, I just had to go see it. The appli­ca­tion is called Oca­ri­na.

Oca­ri­na is the first true musi­cal instru­ment cre­at­ed for the iPhone. Oca­ri­na is sen­si­tive to your breath, touch and move­ments, mak­ing it even more ver­sa­tile than the orig­i­nal. Unlike oth­er musi­cal appli­ca­tions, there are no pre-com­piled riffs so musi­cians will find unlim­it­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties for self-expres­sion. But you don’t have to be for­mal­ly trained to appre­ci­ate this enchant­i­ng instru­ment. For begin­ners, Smule pro­vides an inter­ac­tive tuto­r­i­al on its web­site. It is so easy, any­one can play, even if you don’t read sheet music.

What an awe­some use of tech­nol­o­gy, right? It is now avail­able at the App Store for only $0.99. At the time of this post, it seems that its been get­ting great reviews (i.e. aver­age of 4.5 stars). If you want to check it out before you buy it, SMule pro­duced some awe­some demos for the pub­lic. Check them out below.

Theme from Zel­da

Stair­way to Heav­en

PS. SMule also has anoth­er cool iPhone app that I think is far bet­ter than cur­rent “lighter” appli­ca­tions. It’s the Son­ic Lighter. Check out the demo here if you are inter­est­ed. It’s $0.99 though but very fea­ture-rich and get­ting an aver­age of 4‑stars per review. It’s avail­able at the App Storehere.