Playground Sessions 2.0!

We are excited to announce the release of Playground Sessions version 2.0! This version includes many improvements and bug fixes. Here are the details:

New Lesson Player

We completely revamped our Lesson Player to better use screen space and give users better visualization of their progress

• New Lesson Player Section Navigation
  • Shows all sections in great detail
  • Easily see which lesson & section you are on.
  • Shows complete / incomplete status of each section
  • Shows user’s best accuracy
  • Has two modes: open and close, to allow users to better use Playground with different screen sizes.
• New Lesson Player Toolbar
  • Newly designed icons / functionality.
  • Easily see which lesson & section you are on.
  • We moved all functionality into one easy to use toolbar – no more hunting to find a feature.
  • Newly added Next / Previous buttons to easily navigate sections
  • Can now set custom tempos.
  • Shortcuts for quickly jumping into progress visualizations, settings, or printing.
  • Can now record in practice mode and / or use metronome in performance mode.
• Sheet Music
  • Now can zoom with ctrl / cmd + mousewheel.
  • Larger display to fit more notation on the screen.
  • Fixed issue with collapsing and expanding panels.
  • Piano Demo is no longer played with high velocity & staccato
  • Slow accompaniments no longer have issue with start position
  • Improved performance.
• Scoring
  • Now users can earn a max of 3 stars per song.
  • Performance mode no longer has very high scores.
  • New “level reached” prompt.
  • New “badge awarded” prompt.

OGG & FLAC Accompaniments

• Users can now select from 5 different bit rates:
  • OGG (44 kbps)
  • OGG (128 kbps), this is the new default
  • OGG (320 kbps)
  • FLAC (lossless)
  • WAV (lossless)

• Dramatically smaller disk requirements per lesson.
• Dramatically faster downloads.

Installation / Login

• Multiple users can now log in on the same computer.
• No more license key required.
• No more slow sync process, making login time very quick!
• Sound Effects!

Dashboard

• New offline mode display.
• New level / point display in top right corner.
• New “return to lesson” display in bottom left.
• Removed banners from features.
• Reorganized tabs, including new in-app forums tab.

Scoring / Badges

• Rebuilt badge system to more accurately award and record badges.
• New leveling system.
• Performance mode now gives similar points to practice.
• 3 stars instead of 5.

Bootcamp Tab

• Improved navigation between Rookie, Intermediate, Advanced Bootcamps.
• Now displays number of completed sections in tile.
• Now shows check mark when lesson is complete.
• New left side menu shows all sections and allows user to pick which section they would like to enter.

My Songs Tab

• Now displays number of completed sections in tile.
• Now shows stars when full song has been performed.
• New left side menu shows all sections and allows user to pick which section they would like to enter.
• Now shows greater detail about lesson difficulty.

Song Store Tab

• We now accept PayPal!
• New song layout page.
• Can now select billing profile.
• New “select a membership” page.

Let us know what you think about the update in our forum: https://playgroundsessions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=5547

And keep an eye out for more updates coming in the near future!