Better Practice Blog- Practice Strategy: Chaining
Practice Strategy: Chaining
You practice sections over and over, yet when you go to play your whole piece you still stop and stumble at those same sections. Why is that? It’s because you haven’t been chaining.
Chaining is incorporating a small section that you worked on gradually back into the larger piece. Usually, this is done by adding small sections around it until you’ve mastered the transitions into and out of it. We previously talked about chunking, and from that perspective, this would be step 2. So, how would you use chaining in general practice? Let’s say you’re learning a new piece:
1. Chunking
First, identify the difficult chunks that you need to isolate for practice.
2. Chaining
Once you’ve mastered those chunks separately (mastering meaning you can play it consistently), use chaining to add tiny pieces back in around it, so they you can play it smoothly within the context of the whole piece, not just by itself. Here’s an example.
Say you’re learning Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu and this passage is tricky for you:
You’ll want to practice that by itself first because it’s more difficult for you than the other parts (chunking).
Once you’ve mastered it (can play it consistently), the next tricky part is getting it to smoothly connect with that next piece. So, practice that run plus the first note of the next.
Once you’ve mastered that transition (the most important part), add the rest of the phrase to make sure. If you didn’t pause, slow down, or stumble playing that whole measure - you’re good!
Now, what about the transition going into it? In this case, it’s a lot easier. I would just practice like so and make sure I can do this without stopping:
Then, put it all together. It should be much easier to get through than before!
Tip: Remember to play slowly if you can’t catch it all the first time, then gradually speed up so you don’t practice with stops/slow downs in your playing!