Bridging - Practiceopedia by Phillip Johnston

BRIDGING

(Smoothing the bumps between sections)

Thomas has been working on a Theme and Variations. Thanks to some solid practice, he can play each variation easily and well.

But when he tries to play the whole piece, it's a different story. He keeps stumbling at the instant where he has to switch from one variation to the next.

Extra practice on the variations hasn't helped. What can he do...?

~ 0 ~

Practicing in sections is usually a good idea. 

But if you always practice in segments, and those segments are always the same, then there's a nasty side-effect waiting for you:

Ugly things can start to grow in the joins between sections.

How does it work? You've done section A. You've done section B. But you've never combined them. So the join was always going to be rough, simply because it's under-rehearsed.

It's the reason that triathletes don't just practice swimming, riding and running. They practice getting out of the water, and onto their bike. And then they practice getting off their bike, and into their running gear. Otherwise, they can lose precious time with clunky changeovers.

Bridging is about practicing those connections, removing the bumps, and ensuring your pieces can flow from beginning to end.

Scouting for bridge locations

If your piece is divided up into 5 segments (A,B,C,D and E), you'll need four bridges:

• From A into B
• From B into C
• From C into D
• From D into E

If you think about if for a moment, you'll realize that in a piece with no repeats, this always holds true - there will always be one fewer bridge than there are segments.

So for a piece with plenty of segments , that also means plenty of bridges.

Don't forget repeats

Courtesy of repeats, codas or first/second time bars, you might have to rehearse a link between the end of D and the beginning of B. Or the end of T and the very start of the piece.

Take a moment to factor in these joins too. (In fact, they're often among the most badly in need of a bridge.)

Building the bridge

Once you know what bridges are supposed to be joining, you can set the boundaries of the bridge itself. Remember, the bridges are really just a set of new sections that happen to span the boundaries of the old ones.

Normally a bridge would run from a few measures before the end of a section, to a few measures into the next section. As a result, bridges are usually much shorter than the original sections.

Changing geography

It's not unusual for bridges to connect quite different types of playing - after all, those differences are probably what defined the sections for you in the first place.

Part of bridging is being able to shift instantly to a new tempo, or tone color, or rhythmic configuration, or range - without needing to have a few beats to warm up into it.

Don't throw out your sections

The point of Bridging is to allow you to keep working in sections, not to have you feeling guilty about using sections in the first place. 

The ultimate test...

... is to be able to play the piece to somebody else without them being able to tell where the sections originally were.

Like quality carpentry, you've paid attention to the joins, and made sure they're a seamless part of the whole :-)