Hi john, well I am really a beginner so my opinion doesn't count for a whole lot, but the system you describe is exactly how I am going about it. I break it down into lots of little mini-skills and then build them together into sections and then try to nail the sections together into the arrangement, and then try to play the "performance". I have found I need to write the arrangement sequence into a book for a start, otherwise I forget where I'm at.

Has worked well for me, but getting up to tempo is a struggle for these beginner fingers!!!!

Alf