Ive recently been looking into bard as a class choice and am confused on a bit about bardic music. It says
"Starting a bardic music effect is a standard action. Some bardic music abilities require concentration, which means the bard must take a standard action each round to maintain the ability. Even while using bardic music that doesn’t require concentration, a bard cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), spell trigger (such as wands), or command word. Just as for casting a spell with a verbal component, a deaf bard has a 20% chance to fail when attempting to use bardic music. If he fails, the attempt still counts against his daily limit.
This makes no mention of how using a weapon and playing an instrument interact. and i am curious Can a bard attack with a weapon while he play's bardic music? a Magic item found in the Magic Item Compendium called crystal Echoblade prompted this question. it does extra damage during your bardic music performances which inevitably means one must attack.