This is something that I’ve been living with for the last 5 years or so. For about 20 years, I was mainly a shakuhachi flute player. I trained primarily in Japan and it is expected that one keeps to only one instrument in their lives. In fact it is frowned upon to go outside of your chosen discipline. Specialization is pretty much the rule in Japan. For me, it took me about 20 years to finally solidify my technique on the shakuhachi and so for a long time, I was a specialist. But after living and working as a musician back home in the West (Canada in my case), the temptation, or more like necessity to broaden one’s musical palette is quite overpowering. Being able to play more than one instrument makes one more flexible in finding work, plus it’s fun to explore other sound worlds! I am constantly fascinated by the contrasting perceptions between Japan and the West and this is just another one of those contrasts that I constantly ponder about. So the question, is it better to specialize or diversify in playing musical instruments? I feel that in the beginning, it is important to specialize in one instrument at the beginning. Once your foundation is strong then doing other things is fine. But there is nothing wrong with playing many things purely for enjoyment. I guess it depends on what one’s goals are.