Reading this thread I can tell who has grouped with skilled bards and who hasn't.

Bard class in the hands of a skilled player is literally the most impressive sight to behold in Everquest imho. I've seen 3 in my 18~ years playing eq. It's rare.

When someone bards like a multi-tasking phenomenon Jesus, there is no debate on who is most active.

a multi-tasking carpal tunnel lord indeed, very impressive stuff but I always feel sorry for the permanent damage they are doing to their bodies

I made my spell bar 1-8, on my numpad. It makes twisting carpal tunnel free! Just a simple 11,22,33, ect on the numpad. Granted, I'm not half the bard ive seen those handful of bards become, so maybe carpal tunnel clicking is the secret to success who knows.

Since I like to use WASD for movement, and have my mouse in hand... I use mostly 1-4, and 9 and 0 on my mouse 4/5. I spread the hotkeys/songs over a few pages, because it is easier to press shift+3, 3... or Shift+Mouse 4, Mouse 4 to start a song than it is to stretch. In any case... if you use good technique it will not hurt you or cause injury.

If you want maximum barding, the shift or other button + numbers doesnt work well at all. Even 11 --> 22 wont get max buffs because that little delay in clicking same key means dropping a fifth buff. Need to use another key so that you can press intended song key immediately after, i.e. 21,32,13 (for twisting songs 1, 2, and 3).

And you need to watch the cast bar really closely for max uptime. Due to slight server lag, you need to stop and cast next song when there is like a micrometer left on the cast bar, which will let your current song cast finish and start next one.

If charming in group, since you'll probably be standing right next to charm mob and no time to really let it run at you to re charm, you gotta keep in mind how long your charm timer still has and then queue up charm before pet breaks so that it will land like 0.1 sec after charm break so mob doesn't have enough time to bash you and interrupt.

Theres a lot of things that go into barding that other casters dont deal with

You need song macros, first line /st and next line /cast #. No period. If you aren't doing that then you aren't doing it right. 1 press per cast, double efficient and half as annoying.

lol this. ^^^

This is terrible advice. No bard should ever use song macros as youll at max only ever twist 3 songs reliably without buffs dropping. If a add pops up, need to have mez / charm ready. If a song misses a note, need to be ready to cast it again immediately. If you have a clicky (i.e. BoH) need to stop cast to click.

Wrong. That is solid advice. By having two lines, one with "/stopsong" (or /stopcast), and the other with "/cast #", you cut your keyboard clicks down by half. For stopping for BoH (MH only, can't be combined with epic until epic patch that allows song modifiers in OH), just create another macro that stops your song (/stopsong). Having the /stopsong in the same button as the /cast will allow you to interrupt to cast that mez/charm, and works still if you've missed a note.

Every bard should have macros for their songs that precede the /cast command with a /stopsong.

Note, I do not recommend having multiple /cast lines within a single macro. That is "ghetto /melody" and, as you mention, breaks if you encounter a missed note.

Even if thats what he meant, still terrible (imo) advice. The time lag between macro lines is too long. Even 11, 22, 33 is slower than using another key to stop a song then casting another one.

Its a good starter way to get used to twisting easier, but being able to stop and cast a song that much quicker (~0.5sec) is worth it as it can be the difference of a mob bashing your face in and getting a mez / charm off.