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Here’s a trick I like: start at the end. I practice the ending a few times, then once I’m happy with it I go back one measure and play from there, and so on.

The result is that playing gets easier as you go.

Definitely a 'Your Mileage May Vary' moment here. On guitar, I used to 'slog' rather than 'power through' a song. It took weeks before it came close to sounding like music. Now I start with a couple (tough) bars (think Doc Watson, Deep River Blues) and that bit sounds like music in a day or two. Plus, I find muscle memory develops much more quickly when I play the same bit over in a short time span.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAbrnjdtYw

I agree completely. I play several instruments, and when I learned I wouldn't have been able to motivate myself to do it if I was just practicing small sections over and over again. I might have taken twice as much time to gain the same skill level, but in my opinion, finding the motivation to improve is harder than actually improving at most skills.