Thought you might find this amusing...

I hadn't played my bard since the 10 slot hotkey banks went live, but
decided to finally sit down & remap the keys & give my rogue a rest. So I
get the hotkeys all mapped from using Numpad 7, 8, 4, 5, 1, & 2 to using
Numpad "/" through "." Then I create a bank with all my songs, a "/g INC -
%target" message, and an Off Hand slot to swap instruments. Look up,
forward, and down got moved from Numpad 96&3 to Numpad 74&1.

That accomplished, I try to attack something. I spot a Lion Matriarch,
blue to me at level 13, and try to hit it with one pulse of Bellow. The
lioness wanders off unharmed while I figure out why I'm suddenly staring at
my feet.

I realize my error and reposition my hand a bit more to the left. Then I
make my way towards a carrion spider and try to hit it with one pulse of
Bellow. The spider wanders off unharmed while I try to figure out why I'm
talking to myself. I remind myself that Bellow has moved from slot 5 to
slot 9.

I run off to a safe corner and rehearse my battle setlist (Bellow, CoD,
Hymn) a couple times to make sure I know where my hands should be. Then I
go looking for another mob.

I spot another spider and hit it with Bellow. Yay! I finally hit
something! I restart Selo's and head to the zone edge. I turn around and
attempt to switch hotkey banks to grab my mandolin out of inventory. That
would be a shift 1, but my hand has gone back over to the old keys, so I
find myself staring at the sky. I look forward again and try to hit Shift
1 again. I inadvertently turn off numlock. The spider is on me now and
I'm attempting to sing while struggling with the hotkeys. I soon discover
I've turned off Numlock, toggle it back, restart Selo's, and hit the zone.
No sense messing around - I knew I'd botched that battle.

After about a half hour of similar mishaps, I finally start killing things.
Yay! Then a druid guildmate who's primary is a bard - and a good one -
asks to group. I warn her of the difficulties I've been having but she
assures me I'll do fine and tells me to start pulling.

I find a spider and try to hit it with bellow, but instead tell the druid,
"Inc - a carrion spider...Inc - a carrion spider" Said it twice because i
thought I was starting and stopping a song, see? It wouldn't have been so
bad except in the time it took me to realize what I'd done wrong the spider
hand wandered dangerously close to a gorge hound. So I quickly scour the
area, find another spider and bring it back to the druid, who's scratching
her head wondering why it took so long to pull a spider.

I make that same mistake a few more times, and eventually she has to ask
whether I know multiple incoming messages are supposed to be an indication
of multiple mobs being pulled. <sigh> So much for making a good
impression.

Furthering my reputation as Newbie For Life, I turned numlock off 4 more
times over the next half hour. If I managed to keep two songs up during
battle I was doing good. But my druid friend stuck with me, and eventually
I started getting the hang of it again. Yay! Three songs, almost four
stacked up at a time. Pulls as fast and smooth as an expensive German car.
No more than a few seconds downtime between battles, and rarely that much.
Oh yeah, this is what being a bard is all about!

That's when I notice I'd been singing Elemental Rhythms against spiders all
night. Heh, I used to have ER in slot one, PR in slot 3. I cleverly
switched them when rearranging keys. Oh how I blushed...

Evulia, singing 13 songs, all in the wrong key, Tunare