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RE:4 - I'm not convinced of a whip's bonus to disarm. Regardless, there are some very impressive bwhips out there, and it's probably the bard's best weapon.
RE:5 - Unless you've already got them on the run, and almost dead, don't B Aug unless you feel like dying a horrible death. The lag is too long to allow you to chase if your B Aug doesn't kill, and will draw every NPC for rooms around if you're trying to use it to start combat. Again, the lag is too long to give you time to get away as a starter (say, to try to continuously chord from a room away from your intended targets), and given the relatively low HP of bards, the swarm of NPCs will kill you fast, let alone the opponents you're intending to hit. This chord is a leveling or coin farming tool only. The drawbacks are far, far too heavy to make it useful in pk in all but the rarest situations.
RE:2 - This chord is particularly useful in one on one (like that happens all that often anymore) or one on two situations. If you wait until your pet is attacking the enemy (and are just looking to take down the caster behind your melee opponent fast), then you can at least get a little use out of this chord before it kills your own pet. With a little art, and luck, you can shut your opponent down as effectively as spamming bash, with less lag.
RE:1 - Depending on race, this is potentially the best defense for a bard (get it?). I'm not entirely convinced the bonuses stack with dancing defensive bonuses, but my gut reaction is that they do.
RE:3 - Dancing is your friend. Your best friend. Use it. Yes, it takes out your dirt-kicking, tripping, and fleeing, but the defensive/offensive bonuses it grants are worth that hit. Whether you combine it with singing or not depends on if you think you'll need to quaff or recite. In group PK, sing, in solo-pk, chord/quaff/recite is probably going to be more useful to you than songs. Still, songs of sleep is potent, and can really turn the tide of a battle that might otherwise be close cut against you.
RE:6 - Get lots of scrolls. Get double-scribed scrolls. Get a huge, huge variety of scrolls. Alias the use of each. Keep them handy, and replace any you use. There are lots of store-bought scrolls that are worth their cost. Use them with wild abandon. Scrolls are almost as much your friend as dancing, if for different reasons.
RE:7 - I would never bother with persuade in solo PK, with the possible exception of when under the effect of a strong or better ethform scroll. In group PK, it's not a bad tactic if you find yourself as third-row support, but I wouldn't bother spamming it. Try once, if it fails, use more effective tactics. This was true BEFORE there was an advanced trainer. People were just too lazy or didn't care to spend the 136134621346 hours it took to master persuade before said trainer existed. Also, you CAN persuade someone else already in combat, but you CAN'T persuade if you yourself are in combat, hence its use only if you are third row support.
RE:8 - Ask other bards for good NPCs to get buffs from. Some buffs are worth the hassle of visiting GM NPCs for, others aren't level-dependent and you can get them from just about any NPC in the right areas. As a bard with the persuade skill trained at all, there is absolutely no excuse not to go around fully buffed at all times. It takes roughly five or ten minutes depending on how malicious the RNG feels as far as persuade successes go to get a full run of buffs that can, in some cases, exceed that provided by being in a tribunal. I repeat, there is no excuse whatsoever for not having those buffs once you reach a point where you can get them. Get them as soon as you log in, and if they drop for some reason, replace them asap. Combined with scrolls and vials, a bard can be the single most prepped class in the game, hands-down, without relying on tribunal membership.
RE: JvJ - This suggestion, I presume, is for the ability to be third row because the only other major benefit to this is moot with bardic skills. This isn't a terrible suggestion, but a quick-thinking bard who keeps himself prepared shouldn't need this edge, and in many cases it will actually decrease a bard's effectiveness (though not survivability).
Other suggestions include:
Wear dragonscale and get relatively strong vials of MV. There's tonnes of mithril out there, when you include skins and such, but DS skins are a little easier to get a whole suit of, especially if you're enchanting in a picky way (something I strongly suggest you do). Don't ever enchant a bard for MR. Ever. Aside from making most buffs too much of a hassle to get, you're going to need to quaff with relative frequency if you find yourself taking hits (IE, spamming quaff heal with the occasional recite thrown in if you get lucky with dodges enough to stop the hemorrhage of HPs).
Use a bwhip whenever possible. Parry without e-parry will not give you a significant amount of additional survivability if you suddenly find yourself front row, so I wouldn't fret too hard about losing it by using a no-parry weapon. Although you can't disarm from second row (even with a reaching weapon like a bwhip, which is mentally challenged), there is the questionable argument that whips give you a bonus to that skill's success if you find yourself front row.
Don't persuade in law-areas. Even if successful, the NPC will wander off to the judge pronto, and you'll find yourself outlawed probably before the lag wears off.
Don't ever use songs of death in pk. It might be useful if you are fighting alongside three or four other bards, but solo, you're wasting your time. Even dancing, it won't have any significant effect on your enemy. You're just asking to die if you bother with this song. In fact, the only real reason to use this song is very early leveling, and to master it to the point where you can learn the other lyrics if you're obsesssive about lyric collecting.
Songs of silence can really shut down a caster, especially a necromancer if you can land the entrancement on them before they get an "o all" off (this is not easy). It doesn't, however, stop them from zapping. It's also foolishly heavy in concentration. Obviously, there's no real reason to use this v melee classes. Fist skills also aren't shut down by this song (despite that the various yell echoes that accompany these skills are supposedly necessary).
Songs of war and protection are actually rather useful at high-levels, if you're supporting a group. Not so much in solo (sleep, or silence will be more useful in these situations when you're not chording or quaff/reciting), but as support songs they're great.
If you find yourself thinking you need to start singing songs of healing, quaff word and gtfo of Dodge. There is no way in hell this song will even touch the kind of damage you'd have to be taking. Maybe, MAYBE, if you have a trio or more will this song be of use in PK, but never solo, not even as a support song in a group.
Songs of dancing LOOKS from the description in the helpfile like a remarkably helpful song, but unless you're a third row supporter in PK, and fighting a bunch of people will low to no enchants, then it won't be as useful as, say, sleep. The only, only advantage is the prevention of fleeing, but if you're already third-row support, then you should be relying on bashers for that anyways. Casters will probably just have word vials to escape the effects, or will die before they can type flee if their tank dies anyways. In large group v group, I've seen it effectively used only once, and that was a scenario that was extremely limited in scope. In solo pk, songs of sleep will do just about everything useful this song will do, and better.
Occasionally ignore what tips and advice you get in this thread, and practice switching between songs in different situations or using different tactics in combination on your own. Not only does an effective bard have to know when to change tactics and what tactics to change to under stress, but it helps to know exactly what kind of effectiveness each of the tactics available to you do, first-hand, not just from the suggestions of other more experienced bard players.
Don't be daunted by the huge list of skills, songs, and (race/cabal dependant) spells available to you. Many, many of those are ineffective or unusable in many situations. Just learn what few tactics work in which situations, and focus on pulling those out of your bag of tricks in the correct combinations under stress.
I just got off work and am exhausted, so I'm potentially missing a few pointers. If I think of anything else later, I'll add it.
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