Shows a preference for the soft pieces (6)
I believe the answer is:
plumps
'shows' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to natural events as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'a preference for the soft pieces' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'soft' could be 'p' (musical abbreviation for 'piano') and 'p' is found within the answer.
'pieces' could be 'lumps' (lump is a kind of piece) and 'lumps' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for plumps that I've seen before include "Makes a choice or drops abruptly" , "Gives support to or drops abruptly" , "Drops or chooses abruptly" .)