We've had occasional questions over the years about the best way to organize Pump music. Here's what works for us.
First, we use iTunes as our music "repository". Not just because we use a Mac, but primarily because it makes it really easy to coordinate our library with Tami's iPod - you just plug it in and everything gets synched up really nicely. Some people like WinAmp better. Whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, whenever we get a new release, the first thing we do is import the CD into our iTunes library. And, even though it's not really necessary, each new release gets its own playlist - so the most recent release's playlist is called "BodyPump 62", for example. Techie note: We use the "High Quality 160kbps" for music import - that gives us a good balance between quality and storage space.
Next, we copy that new release's music into our track playlists. For example, the warm-up song goes into our "Body Pump - 1: Warm-Up" playlist, squats into "Body Pump - 2: Squats", etc. Note the naming convention here - since iTunes displays playlists in alphabetic order, we always want to see the warm-up listed first, squats second, etc.
Finally (and mostly because we're semi-fanatical about our music), I always drop by either Pipera's BodyPump Tracklists or Mel's Totally Les Mills site and right-click+copy the graphic for the current release, then paste it onto the newly-imported songs. Yeah, it's going a little overboard... but we like it.
Our library always has a "Body Pump - Current Class" playlist where we put together our weekly CD. I burn that a few days before class so Tami can listen to it in the car, and of course we take it with us to class. If your club has a fairly modern CD player you might consider using re-writable CDs - just be sure they work in your club's CD player before class, as CD-RWs tend to be a semi-unstable medium.
One note: We generally don't use an iPod for class. It's just a little clunky for us to locate that little play/pause button right after a tough chest workout, plus we don't want to risk having it slip out of sweaty hands and splatter all over the floor!
So, has this been helpful, or do you have a better/easier way to organize your music? Click the Comments link below and tell us all about it!
First, we use iTunes as our music "repository". Not just because we use a Mac, but primarily because it makes it really easy to coordinate our library with Tami's iPod - you just plug it in and everything gets synched up really nicely. Some people like WinAmp better. Whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, whenever we get a new release, the first thing we do is import the CD into our iTunes library. And, even though it's not really necessary, each new release gets its own playlist - so the most recent release's playlist is called "BodyPump 62", for example. Techie note: We use the "High Quality 160kbps" for music import - that gives us a good balance between quality and storage space.
Next, we copy that new release's music into our track playlists. For example, the warm-up song goes into our "Body Pump - 1: Warm-Up" playlist, squats into "Body Pump - 2: Squats", etc. Note the naming convention here - since iTunes displays playlists in alphabetic order, we always want to see the warm-up listed first, squats second, etc.Finally (and mostly because we're semi-fanatical about our music), I always drop by either Pipera's BodyPump Tracklists or Mel's Totally Les Mills site and right-click+copy the graphic for the current release, then paste it onto the newly-imported songs. Yeah, it's going a little overboard... but we like it.
Our library always has a "Body Pump - Current Class" playlist where we put together our weekly CD. I burn that a few days before class so Tami can listen to it in the car, and of course we take it with us to class. If your club has a fairly modern CD player you might consider using re-writable CDs - just be sure they work in your club's CD player before class, as CD-RWs tend to be a semi-unstable medium.
One note: We generally don't use an iPod for class. It's just a little clunky for us to locate that little play/pause button right after a tough chest workout, plus we don't want to risk having it slip out of sweaty hands and splatter all over the floor!
So, has this been helpful, or do you have a better/easier way to organize your music? Click the Comments link below and tell us all about it!
Thanks for your comment :)
And btw, it's really cool the way you organize your iTune. Until now I'm still trying to figure out my iPod Nano.
Thanks this helps a lot. The gym I teach at just got an ipod hook up but until now it was too confusing to use. Thanks for the suggestion guys!
I do much the same thing with iTunes. Although when I burn a CD, I also update each track with the date of that class. That way I can easily see when I last played a tune, so that I don't repeat too often.
And don't you hate it when there is a bonus track and the track# is 11 ? it screws it up. So I enter a separate number for each track so that the bonus tracks get grouped with their borthers/sisters :)
Also use smart play lists to group by track so that I don't have to update so much stuff.
Love the computer-nerdy angle to this post Craig :)
Funny how we all come up with similar ways to do the same thing! My BP collection lives in iTunes too, but I put the track # and name under the "Grouping" field (which I don't use for anything else) - e.g. 01 Warmup, 02 Squats, etc. That way when I sort by grouping I get all the warmups together, all the squats, etc, and I can pick all my tracks from what I have available.
I do use my iPod for class, and I'll admit I've even re-written a playlist using the "On the Go" playlist function five minutes before class! Which is why I keep every BP release I have on my iPod at all times.
I load bp CDs into iTunes with the following naming convention
Bp1:62 song name
bp2:62 song name
If u have a bonus squat track the firstpart of the is the same as above but you would have a different song name
If you use an iPod and mix release this naming standard will put them in the proper class order . You can also use smartplaylist to group the squat tracks together