Many peoples’ musical journey in FFXIV looks very similar. First, they unlock bard performance and download a few midis pre-made for solo bard performance. Eventually they may decide to do their OWN songs and arrange a few solo pieces themselves. However, arranging for solo is very limiting, and it doesn’t take long to realize just how much more they could do if they added more bards to their songs. Once the idea has been planted, they may train up alt accounts to multi-box an entire band, or perhaps get their friends together to help them.
A good soloist is still entertaining, but even upgrading to a duet can vastly expand the possibilities of what you can do, and it’s a good starting place. If you want to go big, though, the built-in ensemble feature can support a full party of eight bards, making it the recommended maximum ensemble size (assuming you’re not stitching together your music in a video editor).