I wonder if other bards in group or with the perform feat, would be able to have the ability to play an instrument at the same time as your main character, is my suggestion, sort of like a band with rocks in that wanders from place to place... maybe even with a Mutant Space Hamster as Mascot.

Either way it would be a nice feature that if you make such a fun little feature for them to tag along the same way as NPCs you meat with the feat do.