When do you practice?
I usually practice in the morning. I feel fresh and it energises my day. I’m often very tempted to start other things first, but if I don’t, I never regret it, I’m more concentrated.
When I had a steady job with office hours, I used to practice before going to work or/and during the lunch break. In the evening, I had still to much to do and after that, I was too tired. I did it so because my job started quite late in the morning to late in the evening. If it had been the other way around, I should have done different.
There is no best time to practice, it depends on your daily schedule and obligations. As an amateur, you might have limited possibilities. As a professional, I try to practice when my energy is high and I can fully focus.
Playing music is quite physical, so you have to build up your condition like you’re sporting. It’s better to play for a short time regularly rather than once in while extensively.
Playing in the morning energises your day. Playing in the evening helps you to calm down, to let go of your day.
And you, when do you practice?
Hélène Seiyu 聖 優 Shakuhachi 
That is a good question, that really started me thinking! For me, as I do a lot of budo, focus & concentration are not the main problems. Moreover, I am a scholar working from home, so I can basically practice whenever I want. But often, I have to force myself to want is, as my main problem is that I am far to critical. Trained as a classical pianist, it is almost impossible to me to just grab an instrument and play as I feel like. Especially when playing piano and or cello I am constantly frustrated about my own shortcomings. Therefore, I work on training my non-judgmental mushin musically, on various levels. For example by randomly playing on fipple flutes and enjoying simple melodies to share on YouTube, just to make people happy. In these strange Corona-times I started a new project – I call it “Homestrung” – that hopefully will help me with that as well. I play the guitar, a charming beginner’s piece, and practice it for an hour or two, after lunch, I schedule my time for this. At the end, I make a one-take recording and post it online, to create a virtual album of honest non-edited recordings of what learning a musical instrument sounds like. It is scary, though… I wonder what playing the shakuhachi will bring me in these areas. ^_^
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Thank you for sharing your experience. Playing shakuhachi could be a nice challenge for training a non-judgemental mindset.
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