Is Singing a free action?

[silverwolfer]

If someone is chanting music or whatever to keep bards music ability up instead of playing an instrument so they can swing a weapon. Does it count as a free action, or because it is a magical ability it counts as an action all by itself?

[ericgrau]

Normally it's part of speaking which is a free action. Bardic music is explicitly described as a standard action, and a standard action each round to maintain it. But many effects last for 5 rounds after you stop singing. So you can sing before combat and spend the combat swinging a weapon or casting spells.

[Deophaun]

It depends. If the music ability requires concentration, then it's a standard action. Otherwise, it's "free" (although the bard is still precluded from casting spells or activating certain magic items).

Keep in mind that some bardic music abilities (such as the ever popular Inspire Courage) don't even require the bard to make a perform check at all. You could have a bard whose only ranks are in Perform: Pipe Organ, and he'd be able to give his full IC bonus to his companions while stripped naked and bound (but not gagged) in a prison cell. Of course, if the bard was attempting to fascinate a creature, he would have to play the pipe organ and continue playing it as long as he wanted to maintain the effect, so he couldn't also wield a sword.

Edit:

Bardic music is explicitly described as a standard action, and a standard action each round to maintain it.
No.

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.

[nedz]

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.
Not quite

Bardic music is a standard action to start.
Only Bardic music which requires concentration requires a standard action to maintain, though there are restrictions on what you can do.
So you can Inspire Courage in round 1 as a Standard action, but in round 2 full attack whilst continuing to sing; you just can't cast spells, use wands, etc.

Ed: semi-ninja'd

[Psyren]

OP didn't specify 3.5 or Pathfinder, so I'll give both.

3.5: Standard action to start, standard action to maintain (for some uses.)

Pathfinder: maintaining it is a free action, while starting it is initially a standard action, before speeding up to be a move action, then a swift action.

[lesser_minion]

In general, speaking or singing is held to take no effort, so it doesn't formally cost an action, but the rules explicitly require the DM to pay attention and require a certain amount of time to be spent if it makes sense. In general, these requirements are looser than might seem realistic, because in real life starting to cast a fireball is already a pretty effective way of communicating that you're totally plastered.

For the purposes of bardic music or other special abilities that involve singing, the actions needed and restrictions imposed depend on that special ability.