You may want to work on picking up a
Lute of the Gypsy Princess and
Mistmoore Battle Drums. Both of these items will significantly increase the effect of our abilities, and they can be had for pretty cheap (50-100pp each).
Some of your songs require an instrument, but most it is just optional. If you do use an instrument, the effect gets modified by your instrument modifier.
Ex: You are a level 20 bard, and
Hymn of Restoration has a regen effect of 6 per tick without an instrument. With a Lute of the Gypsy Princess that becomes 6 x 2.1 (That lute's modifier) for a total of 12.6 regen per tick.
Same goes for Selo's. If you're level 20, and say selo's grants 30% run speed without a drum. With Mistmoore Battle Drums (2.1 modifier) you'd be at 63% run speed.