The epic ballad sung in taverns all across Skyrim heralding the coming of the mighty warrior known as the Dragonborn, sung and performed on the ocarina by Callum Pengelly.
The design is inspired by the dwarf axe head from Lord of the Rings.
Skyrim is hands down my favourite video game. I was hooked the moment I heard the music playing in the main menu screen. It’s been a while since I’ve visited Tamriel, but when I bought my beautiful new 12 hole ocarina, I knew which song I wanted to try first. Sven is a bard who frequents the Sleeping Giant Inn who performs several ballads, one of which caught my ear: “The Dragonborn Comes”.
I found the sheet music online. However, after I had transposed the song to a more workable key, I went a little bit overboard, adding an accompaniment and vocals (both harmony and melody). GarageBand came installed on my mac so I used it to combine all seven unique tracks. I had to learn the basics of mixing (an area where I have so much yet to learn). Even though I had finished the song, I wasn’t ready to leave the project behind. Out came the trusty sewing machine and soon I had myself a set of makeshift black hooded robes complete with warpaint! Luckily, I had the materials already on hand, so I didn’t have to spend any money on the costume. Kching!
Shooting the actual video turned out to be more of a challenge than I’d hoped it would be. First of all, it’s cold here in Winterhold (I mean Canada), and playing the ocarina with frozen fingers isn’t very feasible. Those robes weren’t exactly filled with down you know. After an hour of shooting, I checked my footage only to realize that most of the files had been corrupted. I switched cameras to my Sony Action Cam, and got as many shots in before i had to call it quits. This meant that I couldn’t get all seven parts on camera, and most of what I did have wasn’t useable, but I think it worked out well in the end. This experience taught me how not to do a lot of really basic things when it comes to making music. I hope that I get to do those things correctly very soon.
Just in case anyone wants an audio only version:
Not bad for your first attempt. I liked it.