Easy Mode – What is it… and should you use it?

What Is Easy Mode?

Easy Mode is a lenient scoring mode intended primarily to assist students who are struggling due to factors such as learning disabilities or age-related loss of faculties.

Please Note: Easy Mode is NOT recommended for most students unless there is a particularly significant reason for using it.

To enable Easy Mode, within the app, from the Main Menu, select Edit Profile. On the Edit Profile screen, there's a checkbox to enable Easy Mode.

In Easy Mode, scores and feedback are the same is in Regular Mode but pass marks are lowered in all modules where the student is required to tap a rhythm or play in time with a click track or backing track to make them easier to pass.

So, for example, in Easy Mode, you will still need to play at full tempo in auditions / performance challenges, however these modules will be easier to pass in Easy Mode because the required pass marks are lower.

Auditions completed in Easy Mode will be awarded silver stars. Auditions completed in Regular Mode will be awarded gold stars.

So, on the Main Menu, stars will be shown in silver or gold depending on whether auditions were completed in Easy Mode or Regular Mode.

And where a piece has been auditioned in both Easy Mode and Regular Mode, gold stars will be shown on top of silver stars.

Performance Challenges can be unlocked by either silver or gold stars.

Should You Use Easy Mode?

Then there's the question of whether it's a good idea for you to use Easy Mode. As a guide, Easy Mode is not intended for what one might call 'normal' students, it is primarily for students with a learning disability or where other similarly significant learning / medical / age-related factors come into play.

The idea of requiring students to play pieces at full tempo is because the process of practicing and building up your skills to the point where you are able to do so actually prepares you for subsequent pieces that are coming up, i.e. it helps you develop the necessary skills to help you cope with the more advanced pieces.

If you use Easy Mode, this may compromise your ability to play subsequent material at full tempo to a reasonable standard, which is of course, the ideal. In the long term, patience and persistence in Regular Mode will, for most students, lead to better outcomes.

For this reason, students are encouraged to avoid using Easy Mode except as a last resort (and, if you do use it, perhaps it could be for some but not all pieces).

Ultimately, you are the best person to make the decision as to whether Easy Mode is right for you. There are just a few considerations / guidelines to factor into your decision.