Playground Forums

Hi all,

Didn't touch a piano until I started PGS and have been having a blast going through the Rookie Bootcamp.

Question: When do you decide when to progress onto the next exercise? When I started, I gave myself a challenge that I would only progress to the next exercise once I got 100% 3 times in a row. Even if I had 2 sessions of 100% and my third was 99%, nope sorry do it all again until the 3 100% session in a row. Now I have been doing this all along but I am currently stuck on the Game of Thrones rookie lesson. I have had 100% a lot of times but cannot for the life of me get my 100% 3 times in a row and am getting very frustrated.

Am I being too harsh on myself by setting these standards? Or are these standards too low? Curious to see what other standards people set themselves before deciding to progress onto the next exercise.

Hello SeeKay,

I think you can give yourself a break with Game of Thrones. That lesson has been notorious for causing frustration with the learners. I have played it at least 100 times and only earned 100% twice. Others have had similar experiences. I don't know what the problem is.

Anyway, since you already hit 100% at least once, you can move on. Much later, when you are in the intermediate bootcamp, you might try again. It should seem much easier, but you never know with that particular piece.

Good luck.

You're going to enjoy PGS a lot more if you lower your standards. I was in OP's situation and it frustrated me a lot but if you can live with a 90% or thereabouts, call it done and move on to the next thing you're going to see more improvements to your playing and confidence as you master more pieces.

A big criticism I would levy against the PGS app and the developers are so many of their songs in Rookie and Intermediate are TOO FAST! I think I know the reason for this, they design backing tracks for advanced players and then simplify it down to Rookie. Allow yourself to play through things slowly, like quarter speed slowly, then work incrementally to get faster. The app doesn't foster this habit very well.

How much time do you want to spend on a given lesson? Take long enough and you probably can do 100%. That is my goal, but sometimes it really takes a while. So remember also that the program will consider the steps of the lesson completed even with some errors (just not too many). You don't have to get 100% - if you want to move on, go ahead. Just set some sort of performance level you are happy with then play to that level several times.

If you have difficulty reaching 100% you need to slow the tempo down. When it's manageable to reach 100% multiple times at a slower tempo, increase the tempo between 5-25%. Pay attention to the phrases you make errors on and practice them in isolation, (i.e. play the measures as a loop until you get the muscle memory.) This is what the pros do. You can/should also get into the habit of recording yourself, this can document how much you're improving over time.