Story Contest Entry (2010) Orcs in a Forest

[Ernildir]

Okaaay... so...

I didn't originally intend to enter this contest, just because I've been so busy lately, but Christmas/New Years gave me enough of an interim that I thought I might try to write something. So last night I looked over the contest guidelines to check the rules and make sure I still had enough time before the deadline.

And then I saw the part about narrative songs, and it occurred to me that there had not yet been any narrative song entries. So I thought I would mix things up a bit.

I decided to half-improvise something this morning. I'm not very good at guitar, so I apologize for the musical quality. You're lucky it was more of a ballad than a song, or you might have had to listen to my singing voice as well.

Hopefully you'll be able to make out the words -- they didn't come out very clearly in some places. Good luck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxOQEn-r4Os


EDIT: In case any of you have not yet perused this thread, I would like to direct you to a post a few posts down in which I have written up a transcript of the text. This will make it possible for you to understand the lyrics if you read along while you watch/listen.

[Mirimaran]

I'll be honest with you, it was very hard for me to hear. Your guitar playing is great! Maybe you can remix it or something.

[Ernildir]

Ah well.

On the bright side, it's all just nonsense, and isn't meant to be taken seriously, so the lyrics don't really matter. :p

Perhaps I should learn how to remix things.

[Ernildir]

I thought I'd type up a transcript to make this easier for everyone.

I would recommend reading along as you watch/listen.





Disclaimer: In respect of the English language, I must acknowledge that I don’t generally approve of the word "like" being used as a meaningless filler. However, I believe that every grammatical rule has certain instances in which a breaking could be beneficial. I used "like" here in order to add to the self-depreciating value of the lyrics.




A thunder without lightning
pealed through the forest
a trampling of… feet.
There were Orcs
going through the forest
and they were killing stuff, mostly.

But there were also some Rangers in the trees.
There were, like, one, or two, or three.
And they saw the Orcs going through the forest
And they decided that they would do something
because the Orcs were killing stuff
and that was bad.

So after the Orcs went through the forest
the Rangers got out of the trees
and onto the ground.
And they… umm… they… they made a campfire.
They got some water from the stream.
And they… boiled it.
And then they made coffee.
And they drank it.
And it was really good coffee.

And, well, one of the Rangers,
He went out over by the trees
and he walked around one of the trees in a whole circle.
And he walked around another tree in another circle.
He walked around three trees in a circle.
And then he went back to the campfire.
Umm… he went to the campfire and drank more coffee.
It was really good coffee.
And… so… but after he drank the coffee,
then they remembered.

There were Orcs.
They… they went through the forest.
And they were killing stuff.
And it was really bad.
So they… they decided to stop the Orcs.
But there was a problem.
Because they didn’t have any horses,
and they waited too long.
So how were they going to stop the Orcs?

Well, I guess they could have had some horses.
So… yeah, they had some horses.
And they went after the Orcs.
And they came to their camp.
And they saw the Orcs.
But there were, like, fifty Orcs,
and only two or three Rangers.
So what could they even do?
I don’t know.

So they saw all the Orcs, and they decided…
Too many Orcs.
So they went back to the campfire
and they… drank more coffee.
It was really good coffee.

And then one of the Rangers,
he went out by the trees,
and he walked around in a circle of a tree.
And he walked around three whole trees in a whole circle.
They were really good trees.
And then he went back to the campfire.

And there was a wind from the West
that blew through the… forest,
cascading through the leaves.
And there were all kinds of really pretty metaphors and similes.
But, yeah, there were lots of metaphors,
but they’re kind of irrelevant,
so I’m not going to talk about them.

So the Rangers did some stuff…
and… I guess they, there were some Orcs.
But they… they were drinking coffee.
And after they drank the coffee, they, well…

They remembered.
There were some Orcs.
In the forest.
And they were killing stuff.
Well, errm… no, they weren’t in the forest, they left, remember?
They weren’t in the forest, they were at their camp,
and they were killing stuff,
and it was really bad.
And then…

Has it been five minutes yet?
[filmer: nope]
no?
[filmer: not quite yet]
How much longer?
[filmer: about forty seconds]
Really? Oh, okay, cool.

So, so… well, okay, they didn’t go back to their campfire.
They actually, they, stayed by the enemy encampment,
and they… decided to stop the Orcs.
So… they got their bows, and some arrows,
and they shot… shot some Orcs
right in their faces.
And the Orcs died.
And after the Orcs died, then there were some more Orcs.
There were about forty-seven Orcs left.
And they went, and they attacked the Rangers.
And the Rangers, well… there were about three Rangers,
and about forty-seven Orcs.
So it was pretty bad.
And, well…

There were some Rangers.
And… they went, one of them went over by a tree,
and he walked a whole circle around this tree.
And after he walked around the circle in the tree, then…

Has it been five been five minutes yet?
[filmer: yup!]
Oh, good, okay.

So he walked around the tree.
And after he… after he after he walked the around the…
Sour chord.
So he walked around the tree.
And there were some more trees that he walked around.
And they were very special trees, because…
They were… they had leaves on them, and…
Some trees don’t have leaves; some trees do have leaves, but…
and there’s the other kind of trees that don’t have leaves.
And this was one of those trees.

[Jon]

Hilarious!!!

[Mirimaran]

Outstanding!

[Eric C]

Disclaimer: In respect of the English language, I must acknowledge that I don’t generally approve of the word "like" being used as a meaningless filler. However, I believe that every grammatical rule has certain instances in which a breaking could be beneficial. I used "like" here in order to add to the self-depreciating value of the lyrics.

Duuuude! What's wrong with like drinking coffee around like the campfire? You've like obviously never reenacted like the Civil War. Coffee around the campfire is like awesome!!! I can see how rangers could like get stuck at that point.

Sorry, couldn't help myself . . . again.

[Greg]

First of all...I love it. Let me just get that out there before anything else.

If you want the sound quality improved, I can fix it for you.

However, that'd require you emailing me the audio for the guitar and vocal parts in separate files, and it kinda sounds like you recorded them both at the same time, through one Mic. If you could, say, set up a metronome without the sound, just the light, to play by, and record just the guitar, you could then save that sound file and play it in itunes into a pair of headphones. Only keep one in so you can hear yourself, and record the vocal part separately as the guitar part plays. It'd be a pretty ghetto setup, but having them separate would enable me to manipulate them a bit and get a nice blend going, too. Could probably do it in, oh...an hour, max. ProTools has a LOT of power...this'd be cake.

So anyway, if you want me to fix it up for you a bit, I'd love to help! Just let me know, either here or via email (you and I seem to correspond well through both, so just pick one), and get those files to me whenever you get the chance.

Oh, one other thing...I prefer *.wav files, if possible, but I can work with *.mp3's and others too...the *.wav is just the easiest to deal with, and is generally the default option, so there's no compression or anything else that's messed with the quality before we can start to alter it, etc.

Maybe all that Studio training and composition study will start getting put to use again...*chuckles*

[Ernildir]

Thanks, everyone.

Eric,


Greg,
I appreciate the offer, but recording the guitar and lyrics separately isn't really feasible with this "song". If it were a real song, that would be fine, but it's not. I've done a number of unprofessional recordings in the past, and I usually use garageband and record everything separately, allowing me to individually adjust the volume of each component. Normally, I might have even recorded this in garageband, but it was half-improvised. All I did before recording this was practiced "improvising" it a few times, until I had the basic "plot" figured out, then went into my backyard and "improvised" it again while my brother recorded it. The whole project was done with less than half an hour of effort.

So because I don't have the lyrics or chords set in stone, I can't record both separately. When I was recording this, I altered the chords in an attempt to match whatever happened to come out of my mouth. For example, when I got to "they remembered", I switched to a dramatic Em progression. I wouldn't know what chords to play if I were recording guitar separately, because I wouldn't know when I was going to say "they remembered".

[Greg]

In that case...

I LOVE IMPROV! Well done!

[Ranger of Arthedain]

HAHA! This made my night!

[Ernildir]

HAHA! This made my night!

Glad you found it amusing.

[Elegost]

Hard to hear you, but wow can you play well!