Real Bardic Music

[Ruslanchik]

I'm making a new D&D character--a gnome bard. IRL I play guitar quite well and can sing decently. I was thinking of ways to incorporate music at the table both to assist in role-playing and to liven the game up a bit.

Eventually I hope to write some poems and songs that incorporate facts about the party and recount our exploits, but that takes time, which is always in short supply. Right now it would be easier to just learn a few easy-to-remember tunes.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of good internet sites or books where I can find songs that a typical bard would sing and play on the guitar.

Also, what would y'all think about a bard playing blues, rock, and folk tunes? Is it important to have medieval sounding songs, or would any songs do?

Any other advice on bringing music to the table?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Since it's fantasy, I think rock, jazz, etc. is all fair game. Check with the other players and DM about style in the campaign, but if it's good, it's good. Certainly in the last few years there have been many movies with out-of-period music that have done well.

I had a human bard who was more of a manly-man than the stereotypical minstrel. He played his music on devil chasers and had more of a Stomp-style way of playing. Ah, wading through the enemy, battering out the beat on orcs passing by... lots of fun!

I'd start with whatever you enjoy playing on the guitar. Something that "sounds cool." Build the lyrics around the "cool" musical base, and adjust to fit. Match the mood of the campaign, and everything should work itself out from there.

 

[Ilium]

If you're looking for something "Rennaisance-ey", you can try Cantaria's small collection of pre-1600 tunes (complete with MP3 for most of them):

http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/lists/pre1600.html

 

[Switchblade]

I'd talk to your GM about music styles and what he/she thinks would match the flavour of the world as they envision it. As long as what you play matches their world style I don't think it matters but if it clashes it can ruin the mood pretty quickly. Unless you style your character as some sort of Elvis like rock pioneer who gets chased out of town by do-gooders fearing the "evil" influence of "that racket".

For medieval tunes the only one that springs to mind is "Greensleaves" (tudor period tune), if you don't know it it might be worth doing a quick internet search for, all the others "traditional" folk songs I know of are more napolonic era or later and would sound a bit out of place.

 

[Aeolius]

Thank you for this thread.

The title made me think of a book about druids that I got from my college library more than 20 years ago. In it was a brief bit of sheet music for "Y Derwydd". While I don't read music, I like to bang around on a keyboard, from time to time. So, I used a music program on my trusty IIgs to enter the notes of the song. Once I heard it, I could play it on my own.

Just now I did an iTunes search for "Y Derwydd" and found THIS (iTunes Required)

I am now d'loading the album...

 

[vongarr]

Whiskey in the Jar almost sounds like something a bard would sing. But it's not terribly inspiring. Just take the shell and D&D it up.

 

[LonePaladin]

You might also want to look for the songs that Mercedes Lackey wrote, especially the ones she came up with in her Valdemar novels. One of her first books includes an excellent ballad, usable without alteration, that describes two adventurers — both women — who hunt down some roadside brigands by pretending to be helpless merchants.

 

[roguerouge]

Actually, if you look at most modern pop songs, their lyrics require virtually no editing for gaming. Their generic "I will always love you" lyrics pretty much work, especially if you play an acoustic guitar as you sing, and thus replace the modern music that your audience would otherwise imagine. Occasionally, you'll have to edit out a word or a line, but that's it.

The better, funkier songs, of course, have actual specifics and make references to everyday life. But most top of the pop chart songs don't, as they prefer to strip those away so as to appeal to the maximum sized audience.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

My standard recomendation for bard songs is Do You Hear The People Sing from Les Miz. Can it be applied to a D&D campaign?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4MFXnKzmXI

 

[Trouvere]

Actually, if you look at most modern pop songs, their lyrics require virtually no editing for gaming.

True, that. It's going to be a lot easier to adapt modern songs than to use authentic "bardic" songs. Not that there aren't a few hundred to choose from, but they do tend to be in old French, Latin, Occitan and Italian before English, which poses its own problem. English broadsheet ballads from the 16th and 17th centuries could be useful, though. 'Lord Willoughby' at Ilium's link is stirring.

Of course (note my username!), I'd recommend listening to the trobador and trouvere repertoire from the 12th through 15th centuries anyway (it all goes a bit downhill after that, if you ask me)! If you've not listened to a 13th century motet with four voices singing three texts in two languages simultaneously*, you've not lived.

* e.g. the anonymous De la virge Katerine / Quant froidure / Agmina milicie / AGMINA which can be heard on the Gothic Voices CD 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' (perhaps the direct link will work)