I have a Kenku Bard named Terfu. They're an eight-year-old bundle of sunshine, who's more accustomed to the wilds than the suburbs, and just wants to make people smile and have fun.
In case you are unfamiliar with Kenku they can't talk but have an ability called Mimic. They can repeat noises they have heard, including musical instruments. This would allow them to listen to music and repeat it, so what my character does is he plays an instrument so he can mimic it, then while repeating that same tune he plays another instrument. He repeats this multiple times, creating an orchestra every time they sing. It comes at the cost of not being able to speak straight, but it's totally worth it!
I'm not sure that would work. A kenku could mimic the sound, but I don't think it could mimic multiple sounds at once even if it was hearing them at the same time.
You can mimic sounds you have heard, including voices. A creature that hears the sounds you make can tell they are imitations with a successful Wisdom (Insight) check opposed by your Charisma (Deception) check.
You can mimic sounds that you've heard, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can produce endless chains of musical notes, or combinations of many sounds all at once. For one thing, you need to breathe, and I think that there's a discussion to be had around what constitutes "a sound." A piece of music using many instruments is composed of multiple sounds, for instance.
Personally, I would rule the following:
A Kenku can imitate individual sounds. The sound must have a single source.
A Kenku can pick an individual sound out from other background noise if they want to imitate it - for example, if the kenku is in a busy marketplace then they could imitate the sound of the baker shouting "Bread rolls! Get your rolls here!" But they wouldn't be able to mimic the sound of the entire crowd making noise at once, nor would the sound of the crowd prevent them from picking out the baker's voice.
A Kenku cannot mimic its own voice - doing so essentially defies what Mimicry does, as the Kenku is no longer mimicking exterior sounds
It's kind of important that it works that way, as otherwise every time the kenku wants to mimic a new word, it's essential that they don't have to contend with "was the wind blowing/was it raining/was a cow mooing" at the same time (as by the "I can mimic combinations of sounds") you would have to mimic combinations of sounds instead of individual ones, if that's what was heard.
You can mimic sounds you have heard, including voices. A creature that hears the sounds you make can tell they are imitations with a successful Wisdom (Insight) check opposed by your Charisma (Deception) check.
You can mimic sounds that you've heard, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can produce endless chains of musical notes, or combinations of many sounds all at once. For one thing, you need to breathe, and I think that there's a discussion to be had around what constitutes "a sound." A piece of music using many instruments is composed of multiple sounds, for instance.
Personally, I would rule the following:
A Kenku can imitate individual sounds. The sound must have a single source.
A Kenku can pick an individual sound out from other background noise if they want to imitate it - for example, if the kenku is in a busy marketplace then they could imitate the sound of the baker shouting "Bread rolls! Get your rolls here!" But they wouldn't be able to mimic the sound of the entire crowd making noise at once, nor would the sound of the crowd prevent them from picking out the baker's voice.
A Kenku cannot mimic its own voice - doing so essentially defies what Mimicry does, as the Kenku is no longer mimicking exterior sounds
It's kind of important that it works that way, as otherwise every time the kenku wants to mimic a new word, it's essential that they don't have to contend with "was the wind blowing/was it raining/was a cow mooing" at the same time (as by the "I can mimic combinations of sounds") you would have to mimic combinations of sounds instead of individual ones, if that's what was heard.
All good thoughts. Though I'll add onto it this:
Kenku are birds. I don't think anyone forgets this, but I don't think most people fully cotton on to some of the implications of this.
Birds have a unique biological advantage in the area of producing sound. Unlike the larynx the syrinx is situated further down in the respiratory tract, and encompasses that fork in the road. This allows a bird to produce two pitches simultaneously or alternate between pitches very, very rapidly.
And this allows some WILD and strange sounds to come out of birds.
So to that end while I agree realistically speaking a Kenku bard probably isn't going to be able to accurately mimic an entire orchestra I think they could harmonize with their own vocals quite well.
Also... anyone with Minor Illusion can basically do this. The spell is extremely open-ended in what can be produced with the spell in terms of sound, but feasibly anyone could produce the sound of a full band. And even with a very strict reading of the rules, it can at least produce one instrument of sound, so one person can create the sounds of a two-person band.
In a game I'm running I actually have an NPC Kenku the party occasionally runs into who "plays" his stringless lute by just mimicking the sounds and pretending to pluck the strings.
I have a Kenku Bard named Terfu. They're an eight-year-old bundle of sunshine, who's more accustomed to the wilds than the suburbs, and just wants to make people smile and have fun.
In case you are unfamiliar with Kenku they can't talk but have an ability called Mimic. They can repeat noises they have heard, including musical instruments. This would allow them to listen to music and repeat it, so what my character does is he plays an instrument so he can mimic it, then while repeating that same tune he plays another instrument. He repeats this multiple times, creating an orchestra every time they sing. It comes at the cost of not being able to speak straight, but it's totally worth it!
I'm not sure that would work. A kenku could mimic the sound, but I don't think it could mimic multiple sounds at once even if it was hearing them at the same time.
It's an interesting idea.
Mimicry reads:
You can mimic sounds that you've heard, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can produce endless chains of musical notes, or combinations of many sounds all at once. For one thing, you need to breathe, and I think that there's a discussion to be had around what constitutes "a sound." A piece of music using many instruments is composed of multiple sounds, for instance.
Personally, I would rule the following:
It's kind of important that it works that way, as otherwise every time the kenku wants to mimic a new word, it's essential that they don't have to contend with "was the wind blowing/was it raining/was a cow mooing" at the same time (as by the "I can mimic combinations of sounds") you would have to mimic combinations of sounds instead of individual ones, if that's what was heard.
All good thoughts. Though I'll add onto it this:
Kenku are birds. I don't think anyone forgets this, but I don't think most people fully cotton on to some of the implications of this.
Birds have a unique biological advantage in the area of producing sound. Unlike the larynx the syrinx is situated further down in the respiratory tract, and encompasses that fork in the road. This allows a bird to produce two pitches simultaneously or alternate between pitches very, very rapidly.
Cool animation that illustrates this:
https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/features/birdsong/how-birds-sing
And this allows some WILD and strange sounds to come out of birds.
So to that end while I agree realistically speaking a Kenku bard probably isn't going to be able to accurately mimic an entire orchestra I think they could harmonize with their own vocals quite well.
Also... anyone with Minor Illusion can basically do this. The spell is extremely open-ended in what can be produced with the spell in terms of sound, but feasibly anyone could produce the sound of a full band. And even with a very strict reading of the rules, it can at least produce one instrument of sound, so one person can create the sounds of a two-person band.
In a game I'm running I actually have an NPC Kenku the party occasionally runs into who "plays" his stringless lute by just mimicking the sounds and pretending to pluck the strings.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium