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Ode to Joy, Day 10: Working in Chunks

In my journey through the Learn New Repertoire Faster Challenge at Piano with Rebecca B, I’ve reached Day 10 of Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy. Each day of the challenge has a particular topic, and today’s topic is chunking (focusing on small chunks of just one or two measures). This is a regular practice technique for me, and I’ve been using it a lot lately.

Day 10

Today I continued with Batch 3 (measures 48–59) and reintroduced Batch 2 (measures 24–31 and 40–47) into the rotation. I started this morning with Batch 2. My chunking work consisted of 4-minute sessions on 1- or 2-measure sections before moving to the next one for another four minutes. I rotated through four different chunks, hitting each one twice, for a total of about 35 minutes.

I was pleased to find I retained most of what I worked on last week. I did need to clean up a few spots, including the one where I had changed the fingering. It turns out the original works better, so I had the unlovely task of unlearning what I’d practiced a few days ago.

The A solo section of Batch 2 took a little longer to come back and still needs some solidifying. I didn’t spend much time on it this morning since the session was short, but I’ll return to it next time.

I also reviewed my problem spots in Batch 3, though they’re not really problems anymore. It’s striking how difficult they felt two days ago and how they now come out slowly but smoothly.

Where I Am Now

I’m halfway through the piece, and since the second half includes some repeats, I’m probably even more than halfway. Tomorrow I begin Batch 4, which includes some of the most difficult measures of the piece.

What’s been surprising is how quickly things come together. Measures that feel insurmountable on Day 1 sound pretty good by Day 3. And after two days away from a batch, it doesn’t come back instantly, but it does come back.

That’s been one of the biggest benefits of the LNRF schedule. Normally I’d stay on one section until I could play it smoothly at a decent tempo, then move on. The downside was that by the time I reached the final section, a lot of time had passed and the earlier sections had gotten rough.

The LNRF challenge format not only breaks the music down into manageable sections, but it keeps everything in rotation, so I’m regularly revisiting material. It’s easier to bring "resting sections" back quickly and retain everything more effectively.

Video from This Morning’s Practice Session

I’m not thrilled with this video. I play a few wrong notes and didn’t notice until I watched it back. Still, that’s part of the point. Without the recording, I might have kept repeating them.

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