How to Play Music in Lotro

A guide that encompasses the musical repertoire of the Lord of the Rings online. From playing ones' first notes to creating ones' own music to play in game!

Introduction

The Lord of the Rings online boasts a robust music system that allows players to play music free-form using their keyboard or via the "scripted" ABC notation system. Whether you're just banging away on the drums for fun or keen to compose your own music and participate in Orchestra or Band play, this guide is to help you get used to the music system from the very basics through to more advanced techniques.

Even if you're not a musician and can't even play an instrument it is still possible to play music in Lotro, via the ABC notation system, which will be covered in the next sections.

Who Can Play?
The Minstrel, of course, gains the ability to play all instruments as well as how to teach others to play. However all classes are able to play an instrument right from the beginning of the game generally starting with the lute and some gain the ability to play additional instruments as per the table below.


Image courtesy of http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Instruments

Music is thus not the sole prerogative of Minstrels but can be enjoyed by all classes.

Where do I get Instruments?
Instruments are available from Bards who are normally located at the Major hub of each area. You can purchase the appropriate instrument for your class, from them for 2s each. *Note that only Minstrels are able to play the minstrel instruments. If you are a class other than a minstrel you have to use the basics instruments supplied by the Bards. There is no difference in sound quality between crafted instruments or basic ones.

How do I Play?
Once your instruments is equipped (much as how you would equip a weapon). You need to enter the music stance. The command for this is /music.
Music stance will mean that the number keys no longer activate your quickslots but will instead play a range of notes. You can alter the notes by utilising the additional keys (ctrl, alt, shift) whilst pressing the number key. By default shift will increase the notes by an octave, and ctrl will sharpen (or flatten) the notes. You can also alter the key mapping to utlise the entire keyboard which will be covered in the next section.

Manual Play

Due to latency and connection issues, it is probably best to avoid manual play in groups, however it is easy enough to play solo in this fashion. However the default setup is somewhat awkward so its enjoyable to rather set up the entire configuration of your keyboard. This setup is obviously based on individual preference and style of music.

Keyboard Mapping
To set up keyboard mapping you need to go to Options, Select Key Mapping from the side menu and then scroll down to the music section. Each note is displayed so just edit each one until you are happy with your layout.

ABC Files

ABC files are a musical notation system that uses letters instead of musical notes. It corresponds to the keymapping of the Lotro system so enables one to play music through the game system. If you are not a skilled musician this is the easy way to fake your state of rock star awesomeness!

ABC files need to be created, saved or downloaded into the Documents\Lord of the Rings Online\Music folder. If you do not have a music folder in the Lord of the Rings folder just create a new one. The file extension for ABC must be simply .abc However they can be opened with a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad. You can even compose in a text file and simply rename it to a .abc file after you're done!

Playing the files in game is done by activating the Music stance then typing /play <songname>
The blue Playing bar should pop up across your screen as well as a message saying the Title of the song you're playing.

Plugins

There are a number of plugins that can assist with playing music in Lotro.
Foremost amongst these is Songbook[www.lotrointerface.com] by Chiran. This plugin enables you to not only sync playing with others but also to play music at the touch of a button as well as browse abc files in game. It is an invaluable resource for any prospective bard.




























The second plugin for those of you who are avid roleplayesr and wish your characters to sing along with their music is the Lyrical plugin by Astleigh. Available here[www.lotrointerface.com].

Group Play

ABC files with multiparts (seperate tracks for different instruments) Allow multiple players to play together.
It is highly recommend to do this with the Songbook plugin due to its synchronised play command. It is theoretically possible to play as a group manually but due to issues of ping it can be somewhat difficult to get the group to synchronise effectively.

In order to play as a group one needs to join a fellowship or raid (depending on the number of instruments to be played). And everyone needs to have the same abc file, so that the timing and key are all correct.
The just start up the song via the Songbook plugin.

It is recommended to turn off latency and quantize player music in the Options menu as this allows for better sound quality.

Unfortunately there is an in game bug where you are sometimes unable to hear player music, the only fix at present is to relog and hope that the sound will become available.

Creating and Transposing MIDI files into ABC

There are a number of programs that are able to do this. Most notably Fireferns ABC converter[firefern.rklotro.com] and the Maestro[code.google.com] plugin.

Although it may seem fairly simple to just go ahead and click convert, there are a few things to remember. Midi files play a 5 octave range whereas The Lord of the Rings Online can only play a 3 octave range. As such you may need to edit the midi file until all notes are within the required range. A good tool to do this with is Anvil Studio[www.anvilstudio.com]. The Maestro LOTRO MIDI Player can transpose as well however its functionality is somewhat limited so it's better to manually transpose with Anvil.

To illustrate the note ranges further I include this picture by Fionnuala:








As you can see some instruments may need to be left as normal however high instruments such as the flute may need to be lowered an octave. Whereas low instruments such as the Theorbo may need to be raised an octave. This is so that all the notes will be able to be played within the range ascribed by the Lotro system.

(Note: In Midi an octave is not 8 notes but actually 12, so to shift an octave its either -12 or +12, and to shift two octaves is -24 or +24. This is due to the inclusion of the sharpened and flattened notes as numbered values). Changing values outside of the 12 range will actually change the key of the song so only do so if you are familiar with musical theory.

Midi files offer the option to have seperate instrument tracks. When converting be aware that you can add multiple instrument tracks onto one instrument. For instance if you wish to have a solo song and the midi file contains seperate tracks for melody and rythmn you can still play both tracks on one instrument in game. On the other hand if you are creating an abc with multiple parts you can assign different instruments to different midi tracks.

Since Lotro does not include a violin or cello (or other string instruments) it is recommended to use either the flute or clarinet for these parts or the Harp or Lute depending on the note duration. For longer notes the flute and clarinet will convey the music more effectively, however for faster tempo songs with quick note changes and short intervals the Lute and Harp are more effective.

Useful Resources

There is a large community of musicians about on Lotro, although they do predominate on the Landroval server. A number of them have posted up resources around the internet here is a brief selection.

Guides and Music Discussion
LOTRO Music[lotromusic.mymiddleearth.com]
This site is run by Fionnuala and includes a brief introduction to the music system as well as abc files. She also handles requests for content and displays a list of concert times on various servers.

The Lord of the Rings Online Forums[www.lotro.com]
A link directly to the official forums where abc requests, issues of the system and other related topics to the music system are discussed.

The Fat Lute[www.thefatlute.eu]
The Fat Lute sadly closed down over a year ago. However the songs are still available to download via an ftp system.

Midi Transposition and ABC Resources

Firefern's ABC Converter[firefern.rklotro.com]
You'll need to make an account to join the site. Once in though Firefern offers an excellent midi transposer as well as the ability to share and download other .abc files.

Maestro[code.google.com] by Digero
This replaces the former LOTRO Midi player. It includes an ABC player as well to test compositions offline. It syncs with Lotro allowing you to play new songs in game as well as allowing you to transpose midi files into ABC format.

Anvil Studio[www.anvilstudio.com]
Free software that allows you to edit midi files or compose directly yourself in Anvil Studio. Also useful for turning sheet music into midi files.

Have a site you wish to see featured here? Or a site to recommend for inclusion? Please leave a link in the comments!

[Menteroth]

Spotter, You can create music and play for others in FFXIV too. :)

[Spotter]

I been creating and playing music from the beginning and still enjoy playing it back in Game for other players to listen to, and watch my Musician twist and turn to the main parts of the tunes.
👍👍 10🌟 to THE ONLY MMO that lets players create Music, and play it for others in game!

[ironman in a bearsuit]

songbook doesnt sync for me not matter what i try

[chubwheel]

Also, i play the fiddle. Or at least try to:D I've issues with lot of music named like the one below

[chubwheel]

Does anyone know why i get this as error message?
/play <song file> [index #] [sync]
I've typed /play and filename was 1 - Ghosts 'n' Goblins (C64 - Main) (Mark Cooksey), so alltogether it was like this:
/play 1 - Ghosts 'n' Goblins (C64 - Main) (Mark Cooksey)
But i got the error message as mentioned above. I've tried to remove special characters but still nothing:(

[Westman]

Maybe anyone still using the lotro midi player to use a midi keyboard? if yes - how do you get it running? sadly with maestro you cant use a midi keyboard :(

[Doctor G]

i support your fat lute , hopefully with a big chunga playing it

[Tommy Trauma]

The most in-depth guide I've ever seen on steam, and it's for playing instruments in an MMO.
Good job

[Iralith]

VERY belatedly, I'm seeing this thread again--and, FWIW, I can confirm that LotRO MIDI Player is what I use to play "by hand." I've certainly found other MIDI keyboard-->keypress applications out there, but I've never gotten any of them to work as well as that old Java app. Dacia, I'm Ioachin on Laurelin if you're ever on and want to compare notes.

[DaciaSaoirse]

Aye, I'm more thinking of playing solo when I use it. Thanks for the link. :)