The Rangers - a LotRO kinship [EN-RP] Laurelin

(original post by Andarne, edited by Vingilotz on the Rangers' Forum)

So you want to be able to play a cool tune on your lute, harp, theorbo, drums?

Here is how it works:

You can play music manually if you are a real pro by the use the numbers 1-8 and CTRL or SHIFT to play notes. For most players, however, having preloaded songs is a must.

LotRO works with .abc music files. You can get them asking your fellow kinmates or just by googling for them. One of the sites where you can find .abc files is http://www.thefatlute.com. Just get yourself a decent .abc files collection.
Important: locate all .abc music files in a /music folder you have to create in your LOTRO (screenshots) folder (located in your Windows "my documents"-folder; so place them in [c]/: ... [user]/Documents/Lord of the Rings Online/Music).

To play music, you have to get yourself an instrument and a playing skill first. Every instrument needs a separate playing skill. Most classes will be able to buy 2 instrument skills when you reach a certain level at your class-trainer. The minstrel, however, is the one who can teach you to play new instruments, if he/she has high enough rep with certain factions. You can kindly ask our music expert Morielen to teach you a new instrument (4 day cooldown on that skill, however).

You can buy an instrument at every bard. There is a bard in the prancing pony for example, near the back hearth.

To play music:

• you have to be in music mode: load your instrument in your third weapon slot and right click it or right click your portrait and select "play music" from the menu. Alternatively, you can type /music to enter music mode. You will now carry your instrument.
• The commands to playing music in LOTRO are to be typed in the chat box:
  - for solo play: /play (name of file)
  e.g. /play Concerning_Hobbits-lute will play the file "Concerning_Hobbits-lute.abc" located in the "my documents/lord of the rings online/music" folder. No need to type the ".abc" extension! Play will start immediately.
  - for playing together: You need to be in a fellowship and type: /play (name of file) sync
  You will have to wait until all players have loaded their files. Start synchronized play after all have loaded their files with the command /playstart
  e.g. /play Into_the_West sync, and after all players have loaded their files, type: /playstart. This will result in a group performance, playing the file Into_the_West.abc from your "my documents/lord of the rings online/music" folder.