Even with instruments which you do not need to create the sound by yourself - such as the piano – people have good days and bad days. So, the effect that the emotional and physical state of a shakuhachi player at any given time has on their playing is
of an even greater order of magnitude.
When shakuhachi players talk of having a bad day, they almost never say “my fingers won’t move well”. Instead, they say, “I can’t get the sound I want”. In other words, with shakuhachi players, it’s all about breath.
I think this is because the state of your lips varies so much from day to day,depending on factors from humidity and temperature to what you ate that day to general physical condition. Since these variables are essentially impossible to speak of in a general manner, what I would like to talk about now is how “good days” inform “bad days”.
Have you ever thought about what it is that makes your “good days” good?Essentially, the reason is that your breath converts efficiently into sound.Even a little bit of breath becomes sound, and an increase in breath results in an exactly proportional increase in sound. When you are playing like this, your breath stream hits the shakuhachi’s “sweet spot” even with tightened lips and an arrow breath stream.
On the other hand, on bad days, you have a harder finding this sweet spot and hitting it with your breath. However, more often than not, players continue playing as though they do on good days, with a tight breath stream. It is this mistake which makes bad days even worse!
Of course, one of the points of practice is to get better at hitting the sweet spot. However, here is one point of advice that can help you in the meantime:Even on good days, don’t make the breath stream too narrow (by tightening your lips).
Instead,practice hitting the sweet spot with a slightly wider breath stream, even if at any given time you can actually hit it with a narrower, more effective stream.This will allow you to play better even on those days when your condition of the moment makes the sweet spot a little harder to find.