I've been working on a song in my head for one of my potential roleplaying characters on WoW. She's a paladin, so I though it was appropriate to write a song about the Light. It's a short little hymn-like song wishing the blessings of Light. You don't have to be a Warcraft fan to appreciate it.
Light be with you.
Light to guide you,
when all is dark and grey.
Wherever you are,
you're never very far.
Light will show you the way.
There's two more verses, one about how the Light is inside everyone, and the last is about how the Light can shine through anyone. I spent most of the time writing variations on the accompaniment since I didn't want to cut-and-paste every verse. It's not perfect, and I'm willing to bet I'll be making tweaks to it for a while, but at least it's out of my head!
One of the guilds online hosts a Troubadour Night every few weeks. I'd like to participate. I haven't really decided on a direction to take my paladin as a character, but it would be nice to turn her into a musician so I can share any WoW-appropriate music I write. Right now, there's no current music-centered RPing groups. It might be interesting to roleplay as a music student in Stormwind. Alternately, I could re-write my character as an older woman and have her be an accomplished musician already. I'll have to think on it.
Something else that might be fun would be to collect other people's works of fan music. Not just songs about WoW, but actual in-character music. Right now, I wouldn't have the time to devote to such a project.
In the meantime, the next Troubador night is... this Monday! Pirate's Day, actually. The theme is pirates. I remembered that I had a single verse for a drinking song a few years ago and sat down and wrote two more to make it complete.
I sail my ship from port to port,
Lookin' to dance, drink, and cavort.
And if I find a lass inclined...
My ship leaves me behind, behind.
I haven't settled on a definite melody, although there are a couple of variations I've been using in a my head. It tends to come out like a jig, though. Something I noticed is that it's another song that you don't need to be a Warcraft fan to understand. I have resisted the urge to add a fourth verse just to mention trolls or some such.
There's another vague idea in my head for a song about the bells of Stormwind. The phrase "When the the bells of Stormwind ring" keeps getting repeated in my head, but I don't know yet what emotion I want to attach to it. It has the potential to be more Azeroth specific.
There are three other songs that I've been working on (in my head) for the past few months that have been inspired by Warcraft. One is a pop-ish type song about wanting to be in raids. It's just on the wrong side of meta; I don't like mentioning specific game mechanics, but it's not something you could sing at the Pig and Whistle. I can't write pop well, so it'll be a while before I can do anything with it unless I change it stylistically.
The second is an ode to Bravo Company in Redridge. It's perfectly IC, as long as we're dealing with a time period in which the events in Redridge have already occurred. I might not use it in game because of timeline issues and to avoid spoilers. (Plus, some of the information may be classified ICly....) It's the closest to being finished.
The last is a war chant for my paladin. She's not much of a fighter, but comes from a military family and would know marching songs. I'm not very happy with the rhythm on it, so I've been humming it while walking. It hasn't improved much, unfortunately.
Humming and singing songs from my memory is one of my favorite methods for refining my songs. It helps me streamline the melody and work out lyrics that don't scan well. Anything too complicated is forgotten. I think of it as tumbling songs in my head the same way you would tumble rocks to polish them.
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