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4. Chunking
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Chunking is the most basic and fundamental practice Chunking: Step by Step
strategy. It’s always the first strategy you’re going to
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to use when you first start learning a piece. It is also
a technique that can be combined with all the other
Step 1: Choose a Section of Your Piece
Find a part of your piece to work on. I suggest practicing the
practice strategies in this book.
most difficult section of your piece first while your mind is
fresh.
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What Exactly is “Chunking?”
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Chunking is when you break part of a piece into small sections Step 2: Break it up Into Smaller Sections
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and practice them individually. Once you know each small How small should the sections be? It’s going to be different for
section of your piece well, you can put the sections together each situation. Harder sections require smaller chunks, easier
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and play the whole piece well. sections can use larger chunks. On average, chunks will
probably be around two to four measures. After a while, you’ll
Chunking allows you to narrow your focus on only the parts get a feel for how long they should be.
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that really need to be practiced. For example, lets say you
have a 10 measure section that is pretty easy, except  for
measures
 5-6. If you practice the entire section 10 times, you
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waste time practicing the easy  measures, time which could be Step 3: Write Them in Your Music
devoted to practicing measures 5-6. I’d highly suggest actually marking the chunks in your music.
 Sheet Music It’ll help you stay focused. You can use brackets or just put a ‘
If you use chunking, on the other hand, you might only need to where each section starts and ends. If you’re learning a song
practice the easy measures 3 or 4 times, which leaves you a by ear or a tutorial, print off a lyric sheet and mark your
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lot more time to drill in measures 5-6. sections in there.

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Benefits of Chunking: Step 4: Practice Each Chunk
Simply practice each chunk until it is solid (hands separate
• Enables Rapid Learning first of course!). The nice part about chunking is that the easy
• Increases Continuity chunks won’t take long to learn, so you don’t have to spend as
• Improves Memorization much time on them. That frees you up to spend a lot of time
on the tough sections.
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Wrap Up and Key Points Now on to the next chapter, where we’ll go over my number
one practice technique to build in rock-solid muscle memory.

 Home is the most fundamental of all the practice

Chunking
strategies. You’ll use it as the first strategy in almost every
piece you learn. Here are the key points to remember:
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• Chunking is when you break large sections of your

piece into smaller sections to practice individually
Make Your Chunks small enough so that you can make
 •
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some noticeable progress on them in each practice
session
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Piece your Chunks together by combining them into
larger Chunks or using Overlapping Chunks

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Video Lesson
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Want me to explain it in a video? No problem, the link’s right
here:
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to review? Here’s the link to the video lesson:
http://www.bestpianoclass.com/Vid-Lessons
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And if you don’t have the video lessons and would like to
upgrade, go here:
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http://www.bestpianoclass.com/GetVideos

And remember, you’re ALWAYS welcome to contact me if

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there’s something in this chapter you’re confused about:

Email: zach@zachevansmusic.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/zachevansmusic
Twitter: @zachevansmusic

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