The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 148 Timothy Chooi: Intentionality & Dedication

Episode Date: October 28, 2022

In this episode, Timothy Chooi shares wonderful wisdom and applicable tips, and he answers listeners' questions.  He discusses his journey to an international career, including the obstacles he overcame, his approach to practicing, and his thoughts on the importance of having clear intentions.   MORE ABOUT TIMOTHY CHOOI Website: https://www.timothychooi.com/ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8qfEWdvDd8TjMmOywSWMqg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TimothyChooi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timothychooi/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@timothychooiviolin Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/timothychooiviolin   Practicing for Peak Performance: Your Step-by-step Roadmap to Optimal Performance! Get you self-paced program HERE and transform how you perform TODAY!   >> DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT FROM THIS EPISODE HERE

You're listening to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 148. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice, optimal performance, and building a purposeful life and fulfilling career. I'm your host, violinist and certified performance and life coach for musicians, Dr. René-Paul Gauthier. Hello, everyone. I hope you're doing great as you're tuning into this conversation. I'm very excited to have violin soloist and fellow Canadian, Timothy Chewy, with us today. In our conversation, Timothy shares about his journey from being a young child to being an international concert artist,

having to adapt to many different circumstances in different cultures, making choices and growing as an artist. And he offers golden advice that's going to have you walk away motivated and inspired. I also have listener questions for him. So there's a lot of fun ahead. And before I turn the mic to him, I want to invite you personally to explore with me what it's like to feel confident in performance. Practicing for peak performance, my online performance preparation program is now available at mindoverfinger.com. Practicing for peak performance is your complete toolkit for optimal performance and your roadmap to flow. In practicing for peak performance, we cover the three pillars that lead you to playing your best consistently in performance through video

trainings, detailed worksheets, and online live support, you're going to be guided step by step through the Mind Over Finger Peak Performance System. So if you feel stuck, if you're frustrated, if you feel like optimal performance and flow state are things you're never going to get to experience, I want to offer you a new way of thinking and real solutions. So go to mindoverfinger.com right now and join us inside Practicing for Peak Performance. You're going to know exactly what to do, not only to prepare for the next big event, but to enjoy the entire experience. Practicing for Peak Performance is the complete blueprint to optimal performance, so you're going to be ready to rock any stage with unshakable confidence. Again,

That's at mindoverfinger.com, and I'm going to have the link in the show notes. Now, without further ado, let's talk music making and performance with Timothy Chewy. Hi, everyone. I hope we find you doing amazingly well today. I'm so excited to have violin soloist Timothy Chewy with us. Thank you so much for being with us and tell us everything about you and your musical journey, how your artistic path has unfolded, and what things look like for you today. That's a loaded question, but thanks for having me. Where do I start? Well, my name is Timothy Chewy, and I was born just outside of Victoria, British Columbia a couple decades ago and I was born and raised there until in my teens

and I started music not by accident but it felt like an accident because my brother is also a violinist so by the time I was born he was already playing the violin and then I was watching PBS at the time which we were stealing from the US network down in Victoria and I saw a recording of Sarah Chang playing in the Carmen Fantasy at Wigmore Hall when she was, I think, eight or nine years old, something ridiculously young. And then I started to take a pair of chopsticks and I started imitating right away. So that, combined with my brother being at home, was kind of what catapulted me into the idea and the world of violin playing. So I started Suzuki when I was about three years old, and I started with a very, very, very strict, but also very, very generous

teacher in the Victoria area. And then I continued to learn and nothing really serious, honestly. It was just kind of here and there, very much a hobby. Went to school, learned English, learned other languages as well because my parents are immigrants into Canada. And then when I was about maybe 10 or 11 years old, I started to really see the world in a different lens because YouTube came out around 10 to 11 years old of my time. And then I was suddenly exposed to seeing all these artists that I've only heard online or through PBS in video. So I learned about the Concertgebouw. I learned about Carnegie Hall. I learned about the Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmoniker. So just suddenly my whole world of classical music expanded beyond Seattle and

Vancouver. For me, that was the world to me. Vancouver and Seattle was the world. So then continuing on, I went and learned a lot from all of these videos. And for better or for worse, I felt like I was copying a lot of their fingerings, a lot of their bowings, but also I'm a very visual learner. So I continued to copycat a little bit. And then finally, my family, we immigrated to the United States of America when I was in my teens. And we continued on there. I got accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music because that was somewhere that my brother was already going to. So I entered there right in the middle of middle school and into high school as well. And I grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated high school

there, continued on with my studies in the U.S., adjusted to a new life in the United States, and then just went onwards and onwards and onwards. There was no grit between the ages in my teens until now, honestly, until recently. I went on to Juilliard. I went on to do some competitions in Europe. I went to study in Europe. And then finally, now I started working as a professor at the University of Ottawa. As of July 2021, I'm performing, I'm touring, I'm collaborating with my brother, recording, sharing my insights of how my life unfolded as an artist coming from a smaller, relatively small town into the main art scene of classical music. So this is where I am right now. And currently I'm in Toronto.

And it's amazing because anyone who follows you on social media knows that all these places that you mentioned earlier, Berlin, you know, Musicverein, all these places you've performed in. Yes. Yeah. I'm still slapping myself to this day that I actually played there. That's wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. And I love what you said about having a strict but generous teacher. and that is something that I see around me so much people struggling with this relationship we have sometimes with teachers can you speak to a little bit more about this generosity aspect of things and how important that was for you absolutely I think when I meant strict and generous it's in the most honest way because for me I learn best when facts are given to me directly and straightforwardly. And I feel like maybe, you know, as we get more sensitive as

human beings, I think that we sometimes don't want to hear the truth. And for me, not saying that you have to blatantly hurt someone because of the truth, but I think there's always a way to deliver a message of honesty, whether that be in learning something. And I think we only learn when we're given the truth. And then once the truth is laid out, then we can develop from that. So my teacher, I was very blessed because she was very, very strict. You know, it was very strict that when she gave me an assignment, it had to be completed. And yet generous in the sense that very understanding. So the two for me, I think gave me a sense of discipline when I was at a very young age. I love that deliver the message with honesty it's so beautiful and you know it is important to

be disciplined when we embark on this journey of having a musical career but I completely agree with you in terms of how there is a way of saying the things that need to be said and hold someone up to a high standard but in a compassionate and respectful way i think it's such a great behavior for her to have modeled for you and that's something that you're going to pass on to your students i agree i also love what you said about youtube and how you know that really helped expanding your world and how it helped you because you mentioned you said the word copycat and one thing that's very interesting is you have a very unique voice so i think that sometimes we're afraid of imitating because we don't want to copy but i think that in many ways it's so great

to try things to explore until we find our own way and i feel like you've done wonderfully well with this i feel like i'm still figuring out my own way but that's glad i'm glad to hear that because as they have been saying still like an artist yeah and it's so true i mean i think that the world of the internet is so wonderful in what it allows us to see now and be exposed to yes i have some listeners questions so i want to dive in right away okay i have two questions from chad who wants to know i thought these applied really well for you how do you bring the things you've been practicing into the actual performance through practice i think that's the most obvious answer to begin with i think you need to practice what you want to deliver on stage i

see so many of my students and even myself that we practice things that we're never going to do on stage. And as basic as that may sound, I think you need to just deliver the ideas in your brain to action and then replicate it and repeat and repeat and repeat. And I think that's just with anything. Even when you speak, you need to constantly rephrase the same that you're saying in a different way. But ultimately, I think it's just prioritizing what you want to get out of the practice room? And how are you going to project it on stage? And so many people forget that part that we need to practice it the way that we want it to come across on stage. Chad also wants to know, to what degree? I think that's a great question. Because this concept of sheer repetition

of exercises, so many people have so many different ideas. And if people have not caught the last episode episode 147 i talk about a new way of approaching repetition so there's so many ways of approaching repetition and here's chad question to what degree does sheer repetition of exercises benefit to what degree uh it's not measurable i would say because you know that's asking for data on a very very feeling based and personal measurement i would say the more experience you have in delivering the message that you're trying to get across just naturally by itself you got to trust that it's going to get better the different dimensions of repetition whether that be consistency or whether that be different experiences of playing different

settings I think they will naturally automatically start to package itself in a way that's very easy to deliver so I think of it as learning a language because I think it's so similar in so many ways it's the more you practice it the more errors you make and the more that you continue to want to improve the better it naturally is going to get because if you constantly make a lot of mistakes and you still go forwards with it then you're just going to practice all those mistakes and then you get really good at mistakes but if but also you need at the same time to just do it out there so it's a mindset i would say it's more of a mindset than it is the actual repetition itself so that's my question is have the right mindset and what's right or

wrong that's for you to decide but have that mindset and and then practice it and then it's going to be whatever your mind had delivered it wanted it to be it's very mind over finger literally yeah i love the title i feel that you tell me if you agree with me people underestimate how many repetitions are needed but it's exactly what you just said it's finding out how many repetitions work for you but also the right kind of repetitions not just repeating the mistakes but have what I call is each repetition should bring either improvement or more insight so that there is with each repetition a clear assessment and intention for what the next step is going to be yeah I love everything that you just shared with us yeah I'll just add one more thing that

repetition doesn't always mean playing also it could all about it and I think oftentimes we add that on top of the practice session which actually does then your four-hour practice sessions ends up being eight hours because listening is and thinking and making decisions from score studying or even performance analysis I think people separate that and I think that if you include it, then it becomes a much more wholesome way of practicing. Because just like when you're working out, you can't do biceps every single day. You're going to break down your biceps and it's going to actually get worse. You're going to get injured. But if you rest and then you work on another part of your body, then you're going to start seeing that your biceps are trying to and starting to

heal. So the next time you can do it, it becomes stronger. That's a great point. Yeah. So this idea of listening and thinking about it. Absolutely. And yeah, there's no, I feel like people want to know exactly the number of repetitions, when and how. And I think that we need to look inward for those answers. What are the right number of repetitions for me? How to do them? When to do them? And that aspect that you're talking about of the listening and thinking, so important i have another question from helena how do you prepare hard repertoire when you are short in time you just have to do it you just put your mind that you can do it it's really a psychological thing because the i would say i mean you got to be realistic with what you're also

doing so if someone comes up to you and say i want you to play bergweiler from cheryl tomorrow that's up to you to decide whether you're going to do it or not but if there is i've done in situations such as in the queen elizabeth competition in 2019 which they give us more or less five days to learn a new piece it's a 25 minute piece five days we can use the music and whatever um it's possible it really is possible and i think at the time you know if you plan very very well in section and consistent and make some sacrifices it's absolutely doable it's it's a it's a psychological thing you got to trust in yourself reaching some goals it's not ideal and I wouldn't recommend it but that's how would you do it you start with your

mind you're telling yourself I can do it it's just a matter of really being mature and taking the steps to sit down and saying that there are seven pages every day we do a page and a half by the fifth day I'm gonna have everything learned now you're really speaking my language as a life coach if you it's a mindset if you decide you can do it you figure out how to do it i have two questions about this you mentioned make sacrifices what do you mean by that make sacrifices you know if you're gonna watch netflix for half an hour why not just score study for half an hour you know it's these small things uh if you're going to wake up late just wake up an hour earlier and start working on it right away you know if you need to skip your friend session to hang out for an hour

it and learn it you can do it you know there are a lot of sacrifices and i think knowing what your priority is it's important because let's say someone does come up to you and say like i want you to learn this piece in one week then if that friend time that netflix that opportunity to relax and decompress is vital to you then you need to also choose your projects so you know it's uh if you're going to say yes you got to make sacrifices if you're going to say no you got to also make sacrifices. Really well put. Yes, absolutely. Really well put. I think people are also going to be angry if I don't ask you to unpack that process a little bit. So learning a piece in five days, you were talking about prioritizing and making a plan. Can you unpack that just a

little bit more in details? Sure. So the piece that I learned at Queen Elizabeth was I think about 12 pages from what I remember. The first rehearsal was five days in, even though we had a week technically before we had to perform it so but I made it the worst case scenario five days so I looked at the score first and the first day I remember I just read through the whole thing I couldn't play everything I could barely play half of it I would say barely the first page but I took it out of myself I'm gonna spend four hours take breaks of course but I'm gonna just spend four hours I have to somehow get from page one to page 12 in those four hours no matter what and it's constantly stopping and starting but also in a tempo just so there is some sort of familiarity

because some things are like oh wow this first page was a lot easier than i thought the things i need to worry about is in the fifth page just gives you the geography of the piece first of all you know some are mountains some are desert some are flat some are whatever and then after that we start to suction off so i remember i did okay i wanted to make sure that i had two days at the end of it where I could just polish rather than still learning notes. So 12 pages, that means now over three days. So that's not terrible. It's four pages every day of somewhat having it in my fingers. For me, that means putting fingerings down, bowings, basically having all the information in the music because I knew from the get-go I was not going to memorize it. And there's no point in

trying to memorize it. So that was out the window to begin with. There's no point in memorizing something that you're not going to memorize so that's one another thing that i was talking don't practice things you're not going to do on stage so if you're not going to memorize something why try memorizing it in the practice room because it's a waste of time so i put every single fingering down every bowing down if i change something immediately change it right away as well and then practice that put a metronome on because um the first basis was just to get a clinical approach of how to play everything i didn't know what it sounded like either it was a contemporary piece um and then you know you do that first day first day you feel like i did a lot and then

second day you're like oh wow i had to do another four pages of the same thing but you just do it again and then third day you're like okay this is the last day i'm at the 12th page already then the fourth page the fourth day it's a day when you kind of read you glue everything together and you're like oh wow this is not going to go very well and then fifth day you're like okay let's try it and then by the time at least you have something in your hands and then honestly they're like i still have another three days to work on this day five day six day seven because you already had a chance to play with orchestra you're like okay i know what's difficult what's not now so it is doable as i said and that's how i approached it i'm very clinical very very um very disciplined

in my mindset and also time as well because i had another concerto to also prepare i had to prepare my romantic concerto um and gauge your energy as well you know it's better to use up all energy early up earlier in the week than later right it's better to dress up front than there's distress near the end not not always um doable but ideally ideally is it's a big land where not a whole lot of us get to spend a lot of time exactly and that's also why i said i mean you got to be realistic with what you want to what you want to do what what projects you want to take up because do you want to really shut everything for the next seven days to learn that piece is it worth it to you is it worth it for the product itself also for me i always knew

coming into this competition it's part of that yeah that is what i have to make um but you know you just got to be realistic and also you know seven days i think is already very very short to learn something i wouldn't push it any further so just expect what i mean time is a real truth teller well put absolutely i love what you said in terms of this planning it really looks like it's rooted in self-knowledge of how you learn how quickly you master information and skill and it's very important what you said also in terms of having this you know worst case scenario where you learn things very quickly you kind of have it the you front load it and I talk to clients a lot about this tapering out at the end to make sure you have the energy to deliver

so if you really have to be extinguishing fires on the last day then you have no juice left for the performance itself and as you were saying you also were at the same time preparing a concerto so this managing of time energy seems like you really got it down as a science well that's why i think i mean it's that's not something that i don't think anyone's born with i think you really have to test it out so i encourage that's why most people that are younger even when you're at an early early age of three and this is where i go back to my first teacher there was a lot of expectations whether i deliver them or not is a different question but knowing how much you could be pushed i think is knowing that threshold because if you never really know your potential then you never know

can i learn this in seven days or do i really need 14 days so knowing what you can deliver and what your mind can also handle not everybody's the same some people can do it in one day i know some people that can learn a whole concerto in two days i mean wow i wish i had that and some people can't do less than two months. And you can never really know until you've made a mistake. So that's why you should make mistakes when you're in school and when you're younger, because that's the best time to make mistakes. And there's a lot of forgiveness. And it just makes sense at the time to still make a lot of errors at that age. I love what you're mentioning here in terms of finding out where that zone is of what is the potential and also what is the minimum threshold

as well. It's very important. Very. Yes. Tell us a little bit more about this mindset that you're talking about. Because for me, I'm right there with you. But I'd love the listeners to know a little bit more about your opinion on this. I think I've been pushed a lot since I was very young. And I'm not saying that it's in a bad way. I've been always tested to my limits. I think growing up in Victoria or near Victoria was a very unique place I think because my family were immigrants and playing the violin in Victoria honestly was cool but I don't think it was part of the culture so it pushed my limit of how long could I continue with this passion and hobby in a place that maybe is not New York or Vancouver albeit and I think that already

tested my limits of how how passionate am i into this field second of all was getting used to different cultures because my family culture of my history is very different than english canada at the time and then on top of that you know i didn't really have a teacher in my pre-teens i was self-taught it was how much can i keep going on um and then on top of that moving to the immigrating to the u.s how much can i adjust my life to this new system it was very jarring at first i mean now i feel very at home in the united states but um at first it was a huge difference because the different schooling system different mindset different way of how things worked um and trying to also not go in

the wrong not going to the wrong path you know not getting influenced and I don't know to me it's always been a mindset and just knowing what I want and it's not easy I never I couldn't say I knew what I wanted exactly um at the beginning but I know why I didn't want yeah yeah and then eventually turned into what I wanted and I'm still figuring that out to this day but I still I still know what I don't want so I think that kind of is the fuel of what keeps me going and then that test you because i had made a lot of mistakes growing up um but all of them looking back yeah there's there's small mistakes at the time it felt big the small mistakes um i mean i think one of the biggest mistakes i did was i wanted to learn paganini concerto um when i was 11 because i

thought it was so cool and i could force myself to do it at the time it felt like such a failure to not be able to deliver that but now looking i was like that's just paganini concerto um but every single big move that i made i think i'm very very happy to have done it because it really tested my limits saying yes to too many concerts i was like that was too many but i could have done let's say nine out of the ten of them for example so that's how i practice my own way of pushing myself and then also knowing when things are too little it's like am i just staying with one piece for one year that's too little for me to speed to be inspired so um and this is very music focused But I think this applies to almost everything in life.

There's so much insight to unpack in what you just delivered. Thank you for this. I feel that you have so much wisdom. And it's fascinating to see how having to handle all of these challenges contributes as well to your developing as an artist. So much learning new language, adapting to culture, and this self-knowledge that you seem to have, I feel like is rooted in all of these different situations that you handle. And it's great what you're saying about, you know, this going for that concerto and making mistakes. what's fascinating to me to explore as a concept as a life coach is what we make our mistakes mean because up to a certain point we do what we do and we get the results that we get out of it

it's what we make it mean that has a continuing impact on what we're going to do in the future what's fascinating about learning this pagan and the first concerto is kind of it showed you where your limits were and in itself that's a great thing because think of what came out of finding out what these limits were so in itself it wasn't a mistake yeah yeah because it turned into a very actually looking back it became a very subtle lesson I mean at the time it felt like the world ended you know as a kid everything seemed bigger but now looking back I was like it was just Paganini concerto I just wasn't ready I just needed a couple more years and I actually never learned it but um it was just something that i thought that at the time i could prove to other

people that i could do it and then i was like so disappointed because i couldn't even prove myself i'd love to jump into the rapid rapid fire questions with you that's okay i'm really excited to hear about what your answers to some of them are going to be um for the people who are dreaming of a career that resemble yours tell us a little bit about what your life looks like because when we look at it on social media it looks really busy really exciting i'd love to hear a little bit about what it is and maybe some of the challenges and some of the rewards from this life that you have right now oh social media that's a whole different conversation we could have i think first of all don't believe what you see on social media i mean take it what

you will it is what it is it's a different it's a snapshot of the best times of that we have on tour um what can they expect in a life that i am going through right now i think well i'm very happy with my life i love what i'm doing this is always what i've wanted to do um i'm enjoying being extremely healthy and positive and just full of things to look forward to. And I think that it's not an easy path, being a musician, no matter how much I think you kind of envision your future. But with hardship also comes great rewards. So I think, you know, it's not an easy path. There's a lot of sacrifices, just like we talked about earlier, whether that be social life, whether that be physical, because, you know, you are playing something, there's a lot

of disappointment when you're learning a new piece that you've never understood before or never played before there's going to be a lot of mistakes and that never really ends performing never gets easier it become you get more used to it but it never becomes easier um what else can they expect or what they don't see what they don't see i think is how normal my life is because i'm a i'm a piece of human as well in this world right i'm i i go through challenges i have to get my driver's license renewed sometime and I can't figure out how to go to the DMV and get that done. I have to go to the doctors, make sure I'm healthy. I do work out. I have to eat very healthy as well. Touring, booking flights. I mean, it's fun when it finally works out,

but it can be a hassle as well. And sometimes the thing about being a musician, especially a classical musician what's very jarring is that you're in a social circle that is extremely knowledgeable and extremely removed from society sometimes and then you see the other side of the world and you're trying to make sense of what your role is so I think that's a big question that a lot of artists today are trying to figure out because we live in a bit of a bubble at least as a classical musician and I enjoy the bubble of course but understanding the purpose of what you're there for and how do you make your life meaningful beyond what people want and that's a whole different discussion as well probably

absolutely that's a question that is not in that list that I sent you but I'm curious actually what are some of the hobbies that you pursue outside of music i love airplanes i love anything to do with aeronauticals so i love understanding how planes work i love the engineering of it i love drawing as well i am a nerd in every sense uh chemistry and things i think i like how things work and i like to learn about history as well because i think history is it's it's basically what made us today. So those are my hobbies. I love to hear about that. As you were talking about earlier, when sometimes we need to make these sacrifices and give up some of our time and energy towards something we're working really hard on, but we also need some time to unwind.

You were talking about how it's vital to have this time to relax and just step away from the work for a little bit. So I was curious to know what that was like for you a little bit. Ah, it's good. I mean, I wish I had more time for that. And it's always a balance from every artist I've known, whether they're a freelancer, whether they're a superstar, whether they're being orchestra musicians, it's always a difficult balance. Because being a musician and an artist, I think of all arts, dance, theater, whatever, so much of what we do on stage is our identity as well, offstage. So being a musician, being whatever, we put so much of our personal thought and care into our product, where I'm not saying that other fields don't have that. But I think just it's whether you be someone, an amateur or whatever, it's ingrained since a very young age. yes i totally agree with you yeah sorry what it's hard to detach yeah yeah it's that introspection in finding where the line is for us yes um do you have a favorite tool in the practice

room my music stand my i say my favorite thing is my music stand because i've been so many hotels and so many different situations where there's not a music stand and you can't it's not just about reading music, it's you can't practice, right? Your whole practice routine becomes compromised. That's a really good point, actually. Yes. Do you have one of those really lightweight ones that they used to sell them only in Japan? Yeah, I do have one of those. I do. Yeah. I didn't bring it this time, but I do. You mentioned, you know, mindset and discipline already is, would you say is discipline the habit that contributed to your success or maybe is there another one that you'd like to share with the listeners inconsistency is a huge one consistency

which is a part of discipline yes um i wouldn't say i've always been the most consistent person but i always had a force behind me that kept me accountable i think family stability i'm blessed with that. I know not everybody has that luxury to be saying this. And honestly, just I think in some ways, the negativity of getting into this field actually helped. It doesn't always help with everybody. But in my case, I would say yes, because I was very comfortable with being who I was in talking to people and knowing what I want or what I didn't want. And I never had this noise around me where someone's like you should want this you shouldn't want that you want this so in some ways I've learned to practice following my gut at a younger age than most people

at least in the industry um so I think that's that's one thing that I would say um to answer your question yeah I love that it really shows a great maturity how about a piece of advice that maybe was given to you or any piece of advice in general that you'd like to pass on to the listeners okay i think the advice that i had when i was younger is so different than now because i feel like now it's just such a different world and this is me coming in my 20s still saying this to people who are maybe in their teens i think try to think for yourself I think that's one of the biggest things because it's so easy to just be a sheep now and to follow the herd and you have all these great social media tools but

they have what's good about it is equally bad about it it's so easy to be sucked into a world of false reality and there is nothing i would say that beats smart and hard work because i feel like a lot of and through teaching and also just interacting with even people my age but even people you know that i teach um they want results without going through the process and i think that there is just no easy way there is no sure there are always exceptions of people you know having it's just like winning the lottery there's always exceptions but there is nothing that can replace that hard but also smart work i say hard and smart because people work hard but not smart so you know that doesn't do any good either and there's a way to

work hard without compromising our integrity or our mental health or physical health i mean take anyone who signs up for a marathon yeah almost nobody i know of is forced to sign up for a marathon and the you know they work hard and they talk about needing stretches and it's not an easy process, but it's, let's use the word grind. Yes, it's a grind that is enjoyable for many because of what they learn from going through the training, who they become. And I totally agree with you that the process, there is no shortcut. That's actually something I discussed in one of the podcast episode. I forget the number now, but one of my favorite quote is from Stephen Covey in the book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And he talks about how there are no

shortcuts. The process must be followed and the price paid. And I totally agree with that. And I think that people oftentimes confuse working hard towards something in the way that is in alignment with who you are and also working hard in the way that is self-destructive. And there's a difference between the two it seems as though you have found a really great balance in this field well also learn from other people's mistakes i think that's a great one absolutely um finally what is a quick actionable tip that the listeners could implement today in their musical life think for yourself similar to the last question literally like think think for yourself think about what your limits are and think about what you want out of your musical

life actually no that's that's not maybe it think about what you don't want in your musical life because i feel like you know better it's hard to always say what you want it's easier to know what you don't want and that automatically puts you closer to what you want and that always changes what you want always changes but what you don't want usually changes as well i mean it doesn't change. Sorry, it doesn't change. So sorry, I'll rephrase this again. Let me take one more time. To the listeners today is to first of all, think for yourself. But also, second of all, which is very important, know what you don't want. And that'll help you get closer to what you want. This is fantastic insight. The listeners actually what I would love to hear.

Let's back up for a second is what is coming up for you? what is coming up for me well i'm playing a little concert here tonight in toronto and then next week i'm going to go to berlin to rehearse with the georgia symphony orchestra berlin and we're going to tour lichtenstein in austria with the beethoven's violin concerto so that's coming up and then i'm going to be teaching at the university of ottawa again until the end of the semester and then we're going to be playing tchaikovsky's violin concerto in jacksonville florida and then i'm gonna spend you know the holidays with my parents in the u.s and then um and the next season is going to next half of the season will be pretty interesting as

well i'm making my debut at the world liverpool philharmonic with brook scottish fantasy which will be recorded on bbc and medici and then making my debut in munich and the music in vienna performing there again um so yeah a lot of exciting projects a lot of things to to organize and stay healthy that's one of my biggest projects yeah yeah that's incredible living the dream i'm going to invite the listeners to visit your website at timothychewy.com and also you know a reminder that they can access a transcript of this conversation and more resources on mindful practice and performance preparation at mindoverfinger.com slash resources. I'm going to have all these links in the show note, but wow, that looks like an incredible season. We're going

to make sure we keep track of where you are in the world. And thank you so much again. Feel free to follow me on social media. It's probably the easiest way that I can connect with all of the audiences and always happy to hear from anybody, whether it's a stupid question or extremely complicated, smart questions. So don't be afraid. Thank you so much for taking this time to talk with me today. I feel like we can draw so much inspiration from what you shared with us today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. thank you guys so much for listening i hope you enjoyed this episode of the mind over finger podcast if this content was helpful for you please share with everyone you think could benefit from

it take a screenshot share on social media and tag me i'm mind over finger everywhere so reach out send me a dm and let me know how this content helped you let's keep the conversation going as always i have all the information related to this episode in the show notes you can find them via your podcast app or by visiting mindoverfinger.com where you can also find more free resources on efficient practice and performance preparation links to sign up to my free workshops and information on how to work with me. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to receive your free guide to a productive mindful practice,

transcripts from the Mind Over Finger podcast episodes delivered to your inbox every week, and more. Also, join the Mind Over Finger Facebook community, my private group, for access to my live videos and to exchange with a community of like-minded musicians. So, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast And if you have specific questions for me or my guests that you would like answered in an episode, share them with me using the link in the show notes or send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook. That's it for today.

Again, thank you and à bientôt.