In my lesson yesterday I stumbled my way through a new song I'm learning under the guidance of my teacher. One measure in particular kept tripping me up. He suggested that I isolate just that measure, play it over and over again (slowly, with a metronome), until I can get through 10 tries without a mistake. So I did just that last night while watching some college basketball. And guess what....it worked!
Before, my method has always been to play the whole song through, over and over. Even though some sections are a piece of cake! Yet there I was practicing sections I didn't need to practice, at the expense of those that needed more attention.
It's funny how I need to pay someone to point out the obvious!