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!

The post Playground Sessions 2.0! appeared first on Playground Sessions Blog.

Canon – Rookie
Canon in D – Intermediate
Drops of Jupiter – Rookie
Drops of Jupiter – Intermediate
Gymnopedie No. 1 – Rookie
Gymnopedie No. 1 – Intermediate
Gymnopedie No. 1 – Advanced
New World Symphony – Rookie
New World Symphony – Intermediate
Ode to Joy – Rookie
Ode to Joy – Intermediate
Stay – Rookie
Stay – Intermediate

Remember that each song is available as interactive sheet music and printable sheet music! And as an added bonus, use this code to take 20% off song purchases until Monday: NEWSONGS10_16

Harlem Prep

At Playground Sessions, we work very hard to teach people of all ages how to play the piano, and provide them with a platform that allows for fun and engaging ways to do so. With that said, we’re excited to announce that we’ve recently been involved in a very cool program, led by Mr. Brian Duran at the Harlem Prep Elementary School, a K-5 charter school that serves over 400 students as part of the Democracy Prep network.

Mr. Duran runs a keyboard lab, teaching classes of 20-30 kids piano proficiency. To pick up piano skills, each student is assigned his own keyboard and a section of a popular song to play. As the kids play through the songs, they also pick up on the music theory associated with the material! (“Play To Learn” at its finest!)

Mr. Duran chose to use a few of our songs for the children to play – and they loved the experience! Our arrangements were broken up into 4 parts, and each kid was assigned a part to play, based on his skill level (the melody being given to the more advanced players, and the bass being given to those who were still working up the ranks).

Here’s a sample of one of the songs the children played, “Without You” by Usher and David Guetta. As a child’s proficiency improves, they move from playing the bass, to the chords, to the melody, until eventually they are able to play with both hands! The children are broken up into different sections, based on the part of the song they are assigned, and all sections would play the song together as an ensemble!

Needless to say, we’re excited about what the Harlem Prep kids are doing and the approach to learning that they’re being taught under Mr. Duran. We’re happy to be providing Duran’s program with a platform that helps his students improve their proficiency with real-time feedback, scoring, and other elements that make for a fun and interactive learning experience.

The post New songs & Harlem Prep! appeared first on Playground Sessions Blog.