Strategy for playing softly in percussion group (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
game plan
'strategy' is the definition.
(game plan is a kind of strategy)
'softly in percussion group' is the wordplay.
'softly' becomes 'p' (short for piano, musical term for softly).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'percussion group' becomes 'gamelan' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'p' placed within 'gamelan' is 'GAME PLAN'.
'for playing' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for game plan that I've seen before include "Strategy (in match)" , "Carefully thought-out strategy for achieving an objective" , "Strategy planned in advance" , "business strategy" , "'Strategy worked out in advance (4,4)'" .)