Playing Igo: The ideal playing environment

Different people have different personalities. This is a constant of our condition as social and political animals. Hence, each go player has a different playing style that suits his own personality and way of life. Whether it is a gentle, yet solid style, or a warlike, aggressive style, go offers the exciting possibility of attempting to discern our opponent's personality without exchanging a single word.

Being an abstract strategy game, which requires extraordinary concentration, it would be quite natural to assume that most people play Igo shrouded in silence and deep contemplation. But, as of late, I've heard the following question being asked quite often: "What musical genre do you prefer while playing Go?". Non surprisingly, the question generates a number of different, sometimes peculiar answers. In a game of Go, the player seeks to relax in order to read as far as possible and deliberate upon the best possible move: this is difficult to achieve when our mental states are in upheaval, for whatever reason. I've heard some people saying that their musical tastes (while playing go) vary according to the situation. Some like to listen to death metal while playing go. I found this answer quite amusing (in a good way), for my personal taste is quite different when it comes to playing go.

Personally, I enjoy sipping tea while listening to Japanese and Chinese traditional music. As a long-time student of both cultures, I could provide a number of arguments to justify my personal choice, from the clearly obvious (and subjective) aesthetic argument to the fact that the simplicity and complexity of go is derived from a cultural matrix that is equally present in the far eastern music styles.

There are some occasions when I burn some incense. Concerning this, I express my clear preference for indian incense. Lately, I've been enjoying chinese gunpowder tea (chinese: 珠茶, zhū chá ) while going through the few matches I managed to play so far. I could say that those elements converge to create, in my view, an ideal environment.

I'd like to hear everyone's opinions regarding this topic.