The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 104 Esther Abrami: Q&A Session

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to the Mind Over Finger podcast, episode number 104. This is a live Q&A session from the Mind Over Finger Facebook community. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice and building a purposeful career. And now your host, violinist, teacher, and high-performance coach, Dr. Renée-Paul Gaultier. Hi, everyone. I hope you're doing amazingly well as you tune into this episode. This summer on the Mind Over Finger podcast, I'm having a fantastic time with wonderful guests. Every month, I'm having a live Q&A session with terrific musicians in my Facebook group, the Mind Over Finger

Starting point is 00:00:56 community. And as to be expected, much wisdom is being shared. We started in April with pianist Konstantin Sukovitsky. May brought violinist Callum Smart. In June, you heard from trumpet player Christopher Still. Today's conversation is with violinist Esther Abrami. And we'll spend time with guitarist Brandon Jack Acker in August. I hope you can join us live for the upcoming session. And all of the details are in the Mind Over Finger community at facebook.com slash groups slash Mind Over Finger. And speaking of details, I've been working on a lot of fun things for you guys. So make sure to visit mindoverfinger.com and join my email list to receive all the information about the upcoming projects, including my three-day workshop

Starting point is 00:01:47 Practicing for Peak Performance. Together, we're going to cover the mindsets and the practice systems that will have you go from uncertain and feeling unprepared to confident and ready for optimal performance. I can't wait. I'm packing in so much great useful information for you, So make sure to sign up so you get all the information about the Practicing for Peak Performance workshop as soon as it's available. As I said, today's conversation is with violin soloist Esther Abrami. Esther has been described as a rising star by Strings magazine and as a glamorous and influential star by Pianist magazine. She was featured on both TV and radio shows, including Sky News, BBC Radio 3, and Classic FM, who regularly invite her to perform. Esther graduated with honors from the Royal College of Music and is passionate about bringing classical music to thousands of children and teenagers across the globe.

Starting point is 00:02:50 She's going to tell us more about herself in our chat, and you can also visit her website at estherabrami.com for all the details about her journey and her career. And without further ado, let's go to the show. you guys I am so happy to have a very special guest today the wonderful Esther Abrami it's such a pleasure to have her I will spare you the biographical notes because I want her to introduce herself but if you catch this later it will be released in a podcast episode you can read all about her in the show notes of the episode I'm actually going to go here and share the link to her website but Esther is a wonderful violinist advocate she has a very powerful online presence

Starting point is 00:03:55 she will hopefully tell us all about this new single that came out yesterday and she's just very very active in our musical community so it's very special to have her today as i'm starting the live the weekly lives resuming them after a little hiatus it's great to be back so in just a quick note esther sorry for that little information so the lives are coming back weekly on Wednesdays at 11 a.m. I've got some fun projects coming up for you including a workshop practicing for peak performance all of the information for that's going to be available soon but enough now let's get Esther I'm going to pass on the mic to her so Esther thank you so much for being with us today and please tell us about you of course it's a pleasure to be here

Starting point is 00:04:47 thank you for having me firstly and and well so I think you said the main thing I'm a violinist and I'm French originally I'm actually in France right now and I then went to the UK when I was 14 years old to study to keep studying music and I went to Cheetham School of Music, a music school in Manchester which offered both academics and music at a high level which was what I was kind looking for so went there for four years and then I went to the Royal College of Music to do my undergrad studies and so I went to London for that and I just finished literally about a few weeks ago my master degree at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire so yeah I've just been I've had quite a bit of years of study behind me so that's on the kind of the studying side and then

Starting point is 00:05:43 um so you've mentioned it a little bit I've been well I am pretty active on social media something I started about four years ago and that kind of grew a lot since and it's it's it's helped me so much in so many different ways and it's been amazing to have to have a community on online really to share my music with um and um recently I signed with Sony uh for my very first album and some singles are starting to be released um which is yeah which is really exciting yeah this is so great and it was so wonderful i to read your biography and read your background story so i encourage everyone to go to your website and if they don't know you to get to know more about you i love how this deep love of music got you to where you are today and um

Starting point is 00:06:33 but do you want to tell us a little bit before we turn to the listeners questions tell us a little bit about these singles that you're releasing right now because i really love the backstory of course so there's three that have been released so far and the first one was a romance by clara schumann and um so in in my album it's been a focus for me to um record pieces by women composers um so when i was all all my years of study i i never i never played any pieces by a woman composers and um it it seems you know silly to say because in a way that actually didn't even it really did not cross my mind not at one point did I think how come is it that the composer not composed is not a woman I just accepted this fact and I think that's actually very dangerous

Starting point is 00:07:25 um thing to to be taught in a way and you know I guess it just wasn't yeah it just wasn't a thing and and so for me I wanted to I recently discovered some beautiful beautiful pieces by women composers like Clara Schumann and the latest one by Amy Beach and um I just I just really hope that by recording it firstly more people get to know the music and so it becomes more popular but also I hope that other violinists or the musicians it can encourage them to play it um you know especially you know I'm thinking if I post it on social media people would like the piece and then it encourages them to play it and so that in the next generations we have more people and so that this doesn't happen anymore because I think it's it's very important for for girls to

Starting point is 00:08:14 have role models and and you know to not just assume that composers are men and or conductors are men because that's what I thought that's what I thought all my years of being a teenager so I want to I want to change that and that's why that's why I decided to have a focus on my album for women composers on top of the fact that you know the music is so so beautiful and that it's not heard that much like you know why you know it's great obviously to play some pieces that everybody knows but it's nice to bring you know to bring pieces that people don't know so much and and in a way I felt a tiny bit freer because there was not so many interpretations of it so sometimes when you have got a piece that is so famous you feel like you know you can't really

Starting point is 00:08:58 have the freedom of doing what you want um but when it's a piece that people don't know as much I felt a tiny bit freer to really put my own take on it and so that's yes two pieces two singles so one cherished and one Amy Beach romance that was just released on uh last week on Friday and the music video came out yesterday um and um and then the one in the middle was a piece by Ravel and that is because also I well I've got a very big thing for French composers generally and and so it's it's a it's a mix in the album I don't want to obviously reveal too much as it's still this all coming out bit by bit but I think women composers and French composers are both a big big subject of my upcoming album and I love how it mixes your interest that way this is great

Starting point is 00:09:55 So I can't wait to see what's next now. We got some really great questions in from listeners. And if you're watching live, I'm also keeping an eye on you. So, oh, I see Susan is here. Wonderful. Let's start with the question about your practice routine. And I know that that's one of the things I really like about you is that you're very generous online with what you share with us.

Starting point is 00:10:21 So I know there's already some great YouTube videos on that, but someone was asking about your practice routine. Can you please tell us a little bit about what that looks like? Of course. I recently like to practice in the morning and I find it myself that that's the time of the day I'm most efficient. So what I usually try is literally wake up and straight away to practice. Sometimes I have like go for a run or something in the morning, but short one. and then and then i i i go into my practice and i do all my practice in the morning so that's like after i break for lunch and then i'm kind of done with most things um and then i have the afternoon to create content for socials reply to emails do all of that um and you know at the end

Starting point is 00:11:09 of the day usually i'll do a workout or like do something to to change you know to to think a little bit about something else and but uh but yeah I usually try and really bring all my practice in the morning if I can if I can't obviously sometimes there's so much to practice that it has to be afternoon as well but uh but I try and try and do it all in the in the morning and the ends of how I divide that I usually you know always start with some technical work and then move on to studies and in pieces usually quite a straightforward and way of doing it i mean sometimes when it's concerts coming up i'll cut out a little bit of the technique where i can go straight into the pieces but try and make exercises within the

Starting point is 00:11:51 pieces so that i i improve them that way um but yeah it's it's it's um you know the you mentioned the youtube videos and it's something that i i like doing but it's also very challenging because um it's a bit scary to put yourself out there you know like practicing is such a private thing and the videos i put there is not me pretending to practice it's me actually practicing and this big difference and um so it's you know showing being confident enough to show your flaws in a way because when you're practicing you're practicing what's not good you're not practicing what's working because then that doesn't practice so it's it's it's been a little bit of challenge but I do it also to challenge myself because I feel like if I'm feeling myself my practice has

Starting point is 00:12:38 really to be efficient so it pushes me as well and then I can watch it back and say oh actually I've spent like five minutes on this bit and it's not really got better so maybe I should have found I should find a new way of doing it and it seems like people have do find it to really help I think maybe because not so many people do it and it's not so often you can really see like a practice session because yeah because it's hard to share yes yes I love what you're talking about because that's one of the thing about technique or practicing where we want to keep it varied and flexible and what you're just saying I mean what you just said in a short amount of time is just such gold it's like the essence of effective practice and it's true what you're saying I think

Starting point is 00:13:23 that if we always were being watched while we practice we would be so much more efficient exactly yeah a lot of that time is wasted um when we're being mindless hence mind over finger which yeah exactly yeah well they're i mean it's sad but yeah we're often i think practice because we need to practice and obviously that's fine but but yeah it's so many times i catch myself thinking of like oh what am I gonna eat tonight something like that whilst I'm practicing and and I try and I try and take off these moments or sometimes if I feel tired and I feel like I'm not going anywhere I'll take a break and like have a short nap like a 20 minutes kind of power nap and then think okay and then a lot of the time that is so much more efficient maybe I lost 20 minutes

Starting point is 00:14:14 but the rest like last 30 minutes we're so much more efficient so that worked so much better in the end i think we we underestimate the you know the how if we are feeling really really aware during a practice how much that makes change on on the way we practice and practicing just for and i learned that too late unfortunately but you know i think especially that well all instruments but especially violin it's so easy to put in the hours and not see a difference it's so easy because if you practice something wrong you're just getting better at doing it wrong and that's something I wish somebody would have told me earlier and I learned a bit late but but because I've always been so so so hard working from very like in my teenage years I used to literally like

Starting point is 00:15:05 be in the practice room 24 7 like it was I mean my my colleagues and and and um schoolmates literally used to to laugh at me for like mocking me for how long I would just always be you know I'd always be practicing and you'd walk into the practice corridor and it's always be me there and uh all the time and I used to wake up very early and you know like two hours before going to school break I never hardly ever went to get a coffee or anything it was always practice lunch practice it was always and because i i wanted to get better so badly but but yeah but yes if you don't practice in the right mindset and and really know what you want to improve it's you can very easily practice all these hours and not really see a difference i think that's why it's so vital to

Starting point is 00:15:58 have a teacher that really orientates you uh into that direction um because yeah because it can be hard when you're when you're on your own yeah yes absolutely I think also I love what you're saying in terms of learning how to practice better you were mentioning at the beginning how you practice in the morning and then in the afternoon that gives you time to to think about other things I think those were your words and that is so important to have that space to also have a life so that the human being who's playing music is also being nourished um i think there's a fantastic book called essentialism by greg mckeon and he talks about nurturing the asset so much of what you say goes to to that and this mindless practicing that you're talking about i call that

Starting point is 00:16:50 the illusion of work where we feel that by activating and doing we feel as though we're getting things done but at times it makes me feel um it makes me think of um you know when you're riding a bike and you're in the low gear yeah but there's no resistance whatsoever so you're just pedaling really fast but you're not yeah yeah exactly yeah no it's it's true and it's but yeah it's it's not always easy to to to have that to find that balance um but but yeah I found that indeed having having some time to to think as well and for example I try and take a day off a week and sometimes it's not a week it's sometimes it's once a month but I try and just have that time or try and you know I feel really lucky to have for example my best friend who's

Starting point is 00:17:39 not a musician because I can just spend time with her and just you know talk about other things and it's nice sometimes it's it's needed I think yes oh this is great here's another question as a professional musician do you experience performance anxiety before concerts and if yes what are some of the tips and tricks that have helped you the most to be to beat pre-concert nerves I mean to be honest I would love to to know like if there's any musicians out there who don't get anxiety because I think we all do I think anyway um and I definitely do um what I try and do to to make it to control it I think it's all about controlling it and and having I think we want some anxiety we want the stamina and to have the stamina we need anxiety I think

Starting point is 00:18:33 like we need some kind of like to feel a little something if you feel numb then you don't have that stamina when you're performing and excitement exactly the excitement but i think it's just turning that performance exciting something good and something that you can use rather than something that destroys you on stage and i found that having pre-performances really helped um so running through my program to friends uh or recording it before um try and put the pressure up bit by bit on your on your program and what you're playing because i think sometimes for me what what's happening is that you go from playing it by yourself in your practice room to playing it in front of thousands of feet you know thousand people the pressure goes from

Starting point is 00:19:19 that to that and and that's why it's sometimes hard to eat and then you've not tested your program under stress so some other things that you thought might be good would maybe were not anymore and that would disturb you and make you feel bad and then everything you know was in circles so I found that putting the pressure up bit by bit so you're building the pressure up to the day of the concert really helped um so yeah so recording it doing a live stream when you're playing it playing it to friends and playing it in a and making it a bit harder for yourself let be you know playing it somewhere somewhere a bit noisy or um playing it when you're um you know if if you're i don't know if you're used to playing it with even if it's with the music try and you

Starting point is 00:20:02 know play without try and make it a bit harder so that the pressure goes up and then on the day of the concert it doesn't feel like it's a huge gap in terms of the pressure that you're experiencing yeah that's what yes it's so true what you say that people practice in the practice room and then there's that wishful thinking that whatever they do there in that context in that mindset will reflect on stage and then it's almost like it's a different game on stage so we need to bridge that gap in between i think a lot like for example like memory sleeps like a lot of i don't know because i teach a few people and a lot of the time what they ask is you know memory sleep how do you not have memory sets etc and um i always find that it's it's like you about memory sleeps

Starting point is 00:20:47 or about mistakes that you do like that's why you do these pre-performances and it's in these performances that you want to make the mistakes because if you do it then then you sort it out and then it won't happen again in performance because you were aware of it and then you sorted the problem out so to actually have these mistakes before it's I think the best way to avoid them on the day. Yes. There was an episode of the Mind Over Finger podcast with Leila Josifovic where she was talking about how people think that you can get to a point where there's no performance anxiety, but if there still is, then you feel bad about having performance anxiety. So I think that the best strategy is to just accept the idea that it's going to be there and just get comfortable

Starting point is 00:21:33 with it and i think that you illustrated that really well um here's a question from joe when did you develop your own personal sound and there's a bunch of follow-up questions i'll just in include them right now did it just happen for you while you did your own exploration in your practice does it change for each piece you play so we can break that into different pieces I think like I think sound obviously for well for any musician but especially a string player it's obviously a huge thing I think there's different steps I think you know the first step being just knowing the basic to have a good sound and to make the best sound out of your instrument there'll be you know a sound that's rounded that's that's pleasant etc and that's the first

Starting point is 00:22:24 step and then there's a second step when you start experimenting with your instrument of how far you can go in terms of you know especially knowing the volume that you've got and and knowing the different types of sounds that you can or you could can be able to make um and not just having that kind of pretty nice sound all the time but try and and make that range bigger and then the last step being finding your own sound um which I still feel like I'm still experimenting with and um you know it's it's it's I think it's an I don't know I feel like it's something that you can experiment with all your life and that can grow and change over time um in terms of the pieces I think yes it does change it does change a bit and personally I mean I don't know I feel

Starting point is 00:23:15 maybe there's styles of of pieces that we maybe feel more comfortable with I love romantic pieces I find like the that's this is the sound that I I prefer personally um but um but I'm trying I'm trying to to experiment I realized that for example I a lot of the time I would play very like quite loud and and a nice big sound but I wasn't really experimenting for example with some more quiet and small sound which which can really bring a lot of contrast and that can be great so so yeah it's a never-ending process i think and i'm yeah i'm still experimenting yes i think the word that keeps coming back is experimentation in joe had it in the question as well but that's that's where it's at there's no i think that what i when i get this question i feel like

Starting point is 00:24:08 people are looking for the magic recipe for sound production and of course there are some parameters for each instrument on how to develop it and you know for strings how to use your bow how to use your vibrato all of these things but then it comes to that word that you've used and all of these things that you've so eloquently said is the experimentation and exploration well I think of course yeah as there is you need to i think have that of course that basic first and and and i think it's actually something that can still always be improved and uh and this you know obviously the actual sound but you know things like as you said like the vibrato which is an add-on but which can bring so much and just for example like improving your intonation as well

Starting point is 00:24:55 and and that's something i think as as string players we keep improving all our or i don't know we meant we meant to improve all our life is that the more in tune you play the the clearer the sound will be and and the more ringing it will be for your violin so there's you know i think the more you improve on the technical side of it the more you can be free to experiment and to find your own voice absolutely yeah this freedom is so great thanks for bringing this up i love this um and i love this next question because it ties in to what you were saying earlier with the music of amy beach and clara schumann the the listener wants to know have you ever been treated differently than men in the music field for being a woman if so how did you overcome that situation

Starting point is 00:25:44 um so i think because i've sometimes been asked this question and and sometimes it is men and and you know is more it's asked sometimes in a way of you know well you know before yes there was differences but now it's not anymore so what you know what are you not you aren't about why are you complaining and I think it's it's not going to be like a direct oh you're a woman I'm not going to work with you obviously it's never like that anyway um but you know things like side comments things like that have been said to me um that you just kind of ignore or like smile at it but just kind of move away from it and it's you know things like oh you got this because of the way you look you got this because the guy that the interview liked you and and

Starting point is 00:26:39 it's it seems so childish like it seems an hour you know it was some things that already as a teenager I got a little bit a good grade and that you know oh the reason you got a good grade is because of that and I thought it was just a childish thing that would stop it didn't and it's it's it's sad that it keeps you know it keeps going and I hope I hope it will get better but that is something that is still going on and I think this the first part the second part is also that I've sometimes struggled to be taken seriously um especially uh because I'm still quite young and sometimes when I'll you know come in a in a room with somebody who's who's who's older man and then and there's that kind of feeling of imbalance and feeling of oh well I you

Starting point is 00:27:28 know I and so so it's it's it's been a little bit of a struggle and and I've learned to to to impose myself and to feel confident enough to to know that what I have to say is worthy of being said um but it's yeah it's I think that's why it's important that you know we're coming back about the role models coming back about you know women be like showing women composition women conductors and and just showing women who you know can be in the field and and and be the way they want without having to get criticism for it and you know why why do we all always have to comment on a woman's appearance when hardly is hardly ever the case with a man and you know you can be the way you want and you know it's not yeah it's just I just I think it's improving I think

Starting point is 00:28:26 it's you know definitely seen improvement but but yet there's still so much judgment around around women and around the way they are and what they were and and the reason why they got where they are and it's just it just doesn't have its place in in 2021 I think yes and I think it's such an important discussion to keep having because the awareness is so much higher than it used to be yeah it is and because it is we start to really I think react to it in more time I mean there were times when it was even said to me wow you have a big sound for a woman or for a girl you have a big sound for a girl and at the time I think maybe 10 years ago these things would be said and no one would have reacted because this kind of no one did react I mean yeah it's

Starting point is 00:29:23 that I remember also talking about the big sound for when I mean I remember being told that I play like a Barbie doll so yeah um yeah so it's it's it's these kind of comments but it was as you said it's things that a lot of things that were accepted before and I talked about it before but also you know when I remember when I asked about you know why women wouldn't be why we don't see women conductors and I got the reply that you know conductors need to be respected and so that's why it has to be men you know and you know all those kind of things which were just the you know that was the way it was before and nobody really took much notice of it now as I say now it's getting noticed I think that's what's wonderful and so that's why we need to

Starting point is 00:30:13 have these discussions because because people are finally listening yes absolutely and then I feel that now because there's this awareness we feel a little bit more comfortable confronting these comments when something like that is said I do feel more comfortable now saying looking at someone in the eye and say what exactly do

Starting point is 00:30:33 you mean by this and or even at times saying do you really think this is an appropriate comment what you just said as a while ago maybe I think women in the way were just taking it in or trying to diffuse it to not

Starting point is 00:30:49 cause a situation and as of now I think that it's actually very important that we do bring it up when something like this is said so that the the behaviors continue to change yeah no definitely I think it you know it can have a big impact on self-confidence and it did for me because you start you know you start questioning of you know even if these things are you know said just like that then you start questioning and thinking maybe i didn't deserve this and and it's very dangerous it's especially for for you know i think when you grow up and then you start realizing that okay no there's just somebody's view on it but what when you're younger and it can be very harmful to have this kind of comment set to you yes thank you for answering this so candidly and

Starting point is 00:31:41 I love this question um Esther I have some rapid fire questions for you right now so for the people who are dreaming of a career that resemble yours can you tell us a little bit about what your life looks like sure um I think it's a big mix and that's what I love about what I do um so there's of course practicing violin and playing concerts and different types of concerts so there's you know classical concerts of course but also I've started to do collaborations with other types of and musicians which is great there's also photo shoots video shoots traveling and a lot of time spent with cats um and um yeah and it's the it's the mix of that that I love the mix of of you know of I love fashion for example so all this type of kind of content creations and and photo shoots

Starting point is 00:32:34 video shoots and and on the same time all the musical side of things um to practice play concerts we caught um yeah that's that's kind of a good good view of it yeah keeps you busy but also um very creative yeah in all aspects I love that what's a habit so you were talking about how you used to practice so much um what is a habit that you have and that you think contributed to your success um I think one of them is definitely have been very extremely well organized and that's something that my mother taught me from a very young age and for example every evening I would have all my stuff ready for the next day so like what I'm gonna wear the next morning what and what my bag is ready so I would never wake up in the morning and you're late and then you forget

Starting point is 00:33:31 something and things like that it's just a small example but that's the way I deal with my life generally um no I've got lists for everything and I just get things done like that way and and it's helped me a lot because um when you've got a lot to do it it just you just need to be organized so that's one of them and I think also also being being just very open-minded and not giving up but in an open-minded way not in a way that you know it's like that goes against the window so many times in a way that it didn't work you get up and you try a different way for the same goal but try a different way and and until it works and and you know it will in the end you will find a way and I think it's just having that mindset because it's

Starting point is 00:34:20 it's so easy in a field that's that is so so challenging and so difficult and so competitive to want to give up the first stand that you fall yes I love that I feel like we should make it make up a term for this open or flexible grit no this is so great and what you just said this so important because people feel like they can be either open-minded and flexible or have grit and you just showed us so well how they go together yeah yeah it's it's I think it's definitely because you know there's that famous thing saying what is it something like you can't keep doing the same thing and expecting different results and so true but in the same time of course we're not saying to go and start something else that's not what we're saying it's having the same

Starting point is 00:35:15 goal there was a very good uh in a in a book on self-development i read which a very good um comparison of a boat trying to get somewhere but yet to get there you'll have to keep or you know changing the rotation to together because obviously with the seed moves but yet the goal is the same we have the same goal but yet you have to keep keep changing direction all the time to get to reach that goal and it's the same thing i think for in your life it's you have you have to be flexible but to attain that one goal that you've been wanting oh that's a beautiful analogy i love that what skills do you think young musicians studying today should acquire in addition to learning to play their instrument um i think if we're talking about especially classical musician

Starting point is 00:36:02 i think a tiny bit of marketing basics would be good and something i wish i had um learned by myself um but I think you know there's this whole like I don't know it's nearly badly seen to kind of you know sell yourself and um it's this myth around it that you know it's something that's bad and it's something that's a bit shameful and and and it's it's just so far away from the truth and I think it's uh when you've got that mindset then it can become very difficult to then you know yeah to set yourself and it there's nothing shameful about it and it can be very enjoyable actually to share what you do instead of seeing it as oh I'm just trying to push myself forward but actually just share share what you're doing in a way that appeals to people and you know if

Starting point is 00:36:54 anything we all want that we all want recognition for what the hours of work that we've put in so a lot of the time I think so many amazing amazing musicians don't get the recognition that they deserve just because maybe they have we haven't learned how to put it out there for many people to see and be attracted you know for yeah for people to to notice us and I think there's great tools for that and even you know this this social media of course but there's even things around that that that are important um about you know making contacts in the industry and and things like that that we just don't teach us um right that's i think is yeah it's necessary can make the difference a huge difference actually yes it's so important what you just said

Starting point is 00:37:49 because we keep talking about musicians uh you know wanting to express themselves and being creative and yet at times we are either shy to hop on the platform ourselves or you know maybe some people are being criticized for using a platform but at the same time is there are people out there who want to see what you have to offer so for example I'm really happy that you are on Instagram and YouTube doing all of the things that you're doing because it's very inspiring for me to you know hear you play watch all of this wonderful content that you're sharing and we know for a fact that there's hundreds of thousands of people who feel the same way that I do and so I think that if everyone that feels that they have something that they want to say

Starting point is 00:38:41 and that they want to share feel like they can give themselves this permission to step into this space where they are sharing it to the world then there is someone out there who will be touched by their art but by what they're sharing by their words by their music all of these things so and I think you know even if we're talking about finding a job in a you know with an interview or something sometimes because of the way we taught it's so focused on the music the music just the music matters you don't you know nearly you don't matter your your personality nearly doesn't matter and at a point you know it's just like you focus on getting better better better on your instrument which is of course the main thing but yet if you don't know how to put yourself into to to so that

Starting point is 00:39:34 you come across as somebody that people are interested in and people want to know more about then you know that's a huge life skill that you're missing on because you know if you meet somebody let it be in a job interview let it be you know I don't know after a concert something if you're if you look like somebody that they'd love to chat with there's much more chances of you getting a job or getting the opportunity if you know with comparing two same performances and and it can be I think very frustrating if you don't get that opportunity just because you went you know open enough to to show yourself and and and to know how to come across and and it's something that can be you know dangerous especially when you when you just focus on the

Starting point is 00:40:27 music and and you know don't focus on yeah on anything else I don't know if that makes sense but yeah what is the connection yeah the connection and that's one of my favorite thing about social media is i feel that i get to know the artists behind the music yeah this is great um do you have a favorite tool in the practice room do most people say metronome i'm sure most people say metronome do you have that when in the practice room metronome is definitely a fun one I was trying to think

Starting point is 00:41:05 do we have any other tools in the practice room I can't think of anything I'm with you I am team metronome you were talking about earlier about self development book do you have a favorite book

Starting point is 00:41:25 that you'd like to recommend to the listeners um it's not a self-different book but I have um this book on violin and and it's called principle of violin playing it's by Galagnon and it's a book that I personally really loved if you haven't read it it's um yeah it's pretty great I love it yeah I have it in both French and English and yeah it's a really good one um how about a piece of advice that was given to you that is particularly important for you and that you'd like to pass on to the listeners um so whenever I whenever I struggled or I felt down and I felt like I wanted to give up my mom used to say to me if it was easy everybody would do it and that's something that's really

Starting point is 00:42:17 really stuck and you know it's might seem like just a quote but the thought around it you know it's it's yeah if you're struggling if you feel like you're you're you're struggling to get there I think for me when I remember that it makes sense you know again yeah if if it was so easy then your goal everybody would achieve it and it wouldn't really be a goal so the reason why was struggling is because it's difficult and not so many people are able to do it and and that always gave me a lot of you know I felt like I wanted to to keep keep going even when I felt done to know to know to not undermine what you're doing you know your if it's a goal if it's a life goal then it's it's not that easy and and not that many people can achieve it so you know keep going

Starting point is 00:43:06 yes it's a little bit like growing pains yeah like we have to go through these growing pains to grow and at times it's exactly what you say that you have to be willing to go through the growing pains to keep evolving and honing on your skills in the music field that's for sure john wants me to repeat the name of the book it's principles of violin playing by ivan galamian yes cases thank you for this thank you k and finally esther how about a quick actionable tip and i know you have a lot of them a quick actionable tip that the listeners could implement today in the practice room um i think i think everyone could probably record themselves i would say I think that will help a lot to have a broader view of what where you are right now you know if

Starting point is 00:44:10 it's a piece or whatever you're doing and have a broader view on it a lot of the time we don't really hear everything when we play or we get used to the way we play so to record yourself and listen to it after take school with you listen to it it usually really really helps sometimes it's difficult on self-esteem because we think oh do I really sound like that I thought I thought I thought it better but um but it's a very very helpful thing to do that I try and really really do so that so that I don't get any surprise when I do it myself I record it after a concert but no it's it's it's really helpful and and you can see with them you know you can pretend that you're the teacher and you're listening to a student and and that kind of mindset really

Starting point is 00:44:52 helps if you're feeling stuck yes i love that yes john says esther please keep making cat videos i will well like i always have cat rescues uh from the from the shelter that we have so you always keep seeing new faces and um they all get dragged into listening to our playing maybe in french we could say that's great esther thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your wisdom and tell us where to find you everywhere we can go to find you my pleasure sorry this noise is actually one of my cat playing with a toy and so well you can find me on all socials there's the instagram facebook youtube tiktok

Starting point is 00:45:45 um but you can also find my music on all streaming platforms and and as I said at the beginning there is some new singles that have been released and there's an album on the way so and yeah you can find me on there as well this is very exciting so thank you so much Esther and thanks for all of you who joined us today and um we'll see you on the webs thank you so much see you soon have a great day. Bye, you too. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this Q&A session with Esther Abrami. Esther and I would love to know what your favorite takeaways from today's conversation were. So get in touch with us and share your thoughts on those topics. As always, I'll have all the information related to this episode in the show notes, including everything

Starting point is 00:46:44 about Esther. You can find them via your podcast app or by visiting mindoverfinger.com, where you can also find more information and all sorts of free resources about mindful and efficient practice, performance preparation, how to work with me, and of course, don't forget to sign up for the newsletter for all the info about the Practicing for Peak Performance workshop. Depending on when you're listening to this episode, I hope you can join us for the upcoming Q&A session with guitarist Brandon Jack Acker. As I said in the intro, all the information is in the Mind Over Finger Facebook community at facebook.com slash groups slash Mind Over Finger. So send in your questions and tune in to be part of the live conversation. If you enjoyed this episode,

Starting point is 00:47:36 share it with a friend that you think could benefit from Esther's wisdom. And also, why not share on social media? Don't forget to tag us so we can keep the conversation going. Esther is Esther Abrami, and I'm mind over finger on all platforms. So that's it for today. Again, thank you and à bientôt. ¶¶ Thank you.

The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 104 Esther Abrami: Q&A Session

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