I got an email question this morning that had me frustrated in my lack of organization here.
Hi John,
Am I remembering right that you use a wireless transmitter for your music? With my classes smaller I thought it would be fun to ride along with my riders and would like to be able to still change the music on my iPhone. I am having trouble finding whatever it is you are using. Can you point me at that article?
There's actually a few articles that describe the Bluetooth wireless receiver I use. Better, I thought we should have an easy to find page here at ICI/PRO devoted to our recommended Tools Of The Trade for Indoor Cycling Instructors.
Tools of our Trade!
Productivity – Professionals value their time. Here's how to save some of yours:
Amazon Prime easily saves me six or more hours a month, gallons of gas and removes my tendency toward impulse purchases. How? By preventing me from wasting time running to the store for little things I don't need immediately and then grabbing stuff I don't need. For example; I noticed that after 20 years many of our door stop springs are bent and missing the little rubber end cap. Instead of running to the hardware store to purchase a few one dollar parts, Amazon Prime delivered a bag of ten to my house in two days, for less than the local store and ZERO shipping costs.
ICI/PRO has helped over a thousand Instructors find a simple answer to; What am I going to teach tomorrow? We have over 65 class profiles and hundreds of articles about effectively teaching a fun and effective class based on Heart Rate or Power + there's a reason many of the major brands are connected with ICI/PRO. We deliver quality information. Spend a short time with us and you'll be the expert at your club or studio. Options for Monthly or Annual (saves $$$) membership.
Class Music Playlist Preparation –
At $19.95 the ClassBuilder iPhone App from Cycling Fusion isn't cheep, but it has become the standard tool for Instructors who want their cues displayed at the correct time on their iPhone. Works with either iTunes or Spotify music and includes the option to connect to your video projector or TV to show your class profile.
Schwinn's free iPhone App is limited to iTunes music – which maybe exactly what you use! Add your time based cues and hit play for a well organised class.
Music Counting Tools
The Windows version Tap-To-The-Beat counter isn’t pretty, but I've used it for years – download it here.
Mixed in Key software identifies the musical key of your tracks, creating harmonically mixed playlists that avoid transitions that “clash” musically – wrecking the energy and flow of your playlist. You can learn more about this advanced DJ technique and find full class playlists that we've mixed harmonicallyin this series of posts.
Class Videos
Here's a list of Wide Screen – HD DVDs and digital streaming videos for your indoor cycling class:
Ride-Fit digital downloads of group cycling at three levels of intensity
Many of these videos are structured rides, some are just pretty scenery, all will add a refreshing element of visual entertainment to your class
Deliver Your Class
This $25 Bluetooth receiver will connect your iPhone/Android device wirelessly to your club's sound system. Then you'll have full remote control of your music from anywhere in the room.
Educational Resources
I frequently recommend Cycling Fusion's online Instructor course and their Power Training eBook for Instructors new to teaching with power/watts. The online Instructor training is a great option for an experienced participant who needs a certification to begin teach at their favorite club or studio 🙂
Fixing & Adjusting Stuff – Actual “tools” and parts to keep everything working correctly.
I'm not a fan of using a Goniometer for bike setup, but this one rocks if you want to own one. I prefer to use the simple technique I learned from Schwinn – perfect every time, works in a crowded studio and you don't have to touch anyone.
Our recommended replacement parts supplier is Sportsmith.com
Sportsmith is also the distributor of the Red Pedal Tool that I invented to easily and safely remove the shoe baskets from the Red Schwinn Triple Link Pedals – sorry, this tool won't work with the Spinning Trio pedal.
Over the past few weeks there have been some questions on the ICI/Pro website that gave me the idea for this week's post. One question was about music flow and another was asked which comes first, playlist or profile?
To show one way to make music flow I decided to put together a playlist of songs that are all in the same harmonic key, this is technique is called “Harmonic Mixing” and is used by many of the world's top DJ's. I use a software named “Mixed in Key” (http://www.mixedinkey.com) that automatically analyzes all my music files and determines the key and tempo of each song. Mixing harmonically enables you to create smooth transitions between songs and ensure that all songs sound great together. I put this playlist together without any consideration of the profile. I chose popular, high energy, songs and let the Harmonic Mixing create the flow. This is a playlist that can be used with, just about, any interval based profile where the profile, not the music, is the focus.
Next I put together a killer profile using a technique known as “anchoring time and effort”. This is a very simple tactic where riders should be able push higher intensities as interval length gets shorter. Less Time = More Work.
[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
You can join my TrainerRoad Team at : http://www.trainerroad.com/teams/2484-dennis-mellon-s-indoor-cycling-team
60 minute harmonically mixed track, to download Right Click > Save As / Save Target As to download. Open in iTunes and then you'll see this in your Spotify Local File folder.
This is just one example of how I put together my classes. Other times I try to match the music and profile exactly and let the music dictate the terrain. I would recommend instructors get proficient at both methods. This way you don’t pigeonhole yourself and you keep your participants on their toes. It also keeps things fresh and exciting for you.[/wlm_private]
Do you have an elevator pitch? Mine has changed several times — all necessary. But this post is actually about the emotions that sugar generates.
I began with a standard 30-second elevator pitch. Remember that version? It was the original length years ago, but now almost nobody will listen that long.
I shortened mine to 15 seconds.
Yet people went glassy-eyed when I said “psychoactive nutrition,” even though I immediately defined it as “how foods affect brain chemistry.”[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Still, brain chemistry interested them, so I changed the pitch again. I started with ‘food and brain chemistry’ and left out ‘psychoactive nutrition.’
Then I heard great recommendations from speakers and marketing pros on the perfect pitch:
– Don’t explain your process, just the results.
– Keep it short.
– Avoid big words.
– Start with a question.
All sounded like good ideas. I re-crafted my pitch with a starting question and shortened it again — this time to 10 seconds.
“You know how people have diabetes, high blood pressure, or other medical problems they can’t fix because they’re stuck on sugar? Well, I help people conquer sugar addiction so they can transform their health and feel great.”
I could never finish it. Everyone would interrupt by the time I said “high blood pressure…”
“My father has both, and high cholesterol. What should he do?”
“My mother’s diabetic. Are you a doctor?”
One woman told me, “The second part interested me, but the first part didn’t.”
(Ironically enough, when I asked what she did, her answer took 45 complicated, boring seconds. I didn’t have the heart to challenge her critique of my 10-second pitch when hers was a remedy for insomnia. But I digress.)
I changed my pitch again and dropped the opening question.
“I help people conquer sugar addiction, so they can transform their health, feel better, lose their mood swings, and gain control of their eating.”
It’s 6 seconds long. And I can’t make it through the 6 seconds without being interrupted, right after ‘sugar addiction’:
“Oh, that’s so important!”
“That’s a big deal right now. Everyone’s addicted to sugar.”
“My daughter is addicted to sugar; it’s all she eats.”
“Sugar is more addictive than heroin. Don’t you agree?”
“Do you really believe it’s possible to be addicted to sugar?”
So — and I already knew this — it’s an emotional topic. If I can’t even get through a 6-second sentence, something is charging people up enough that they must speak then and there.
In past presentations, people have glowered at me when I’ve talked about the health problems linked with the granulated white stuff.
A man walked out during one talk because I answered his question that, yes, fruit is sugar.
While I was still working on my doctorate, fat was the go-to dietary demon. In a lecture I gave to fitness pros, I was discussing sugar as a factor in health issues. “I have the same degree you do,” an angry woman shouted [we had master’s degrees in exercise physiology], “and you don’t know what you’re talking about!”
With all of these food-related emotions, this past weekend was such a relief. A real estate agent asked what I do.
He gave me the full 6 seconds to finish my sentence and questioned, “Is there a market for that?”[/wlm_private]
Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em, there's no denying that SoulCycle is enormously successful and a driving force that's responsible for much of the excitement our industry. I visited SoulCycle last fall and participated in a few classes. The purpose was to accurately report on this juggernaut of Indoor Cycling.
The bottom line IMO, SoulCycle get's it. They understand their target market precisely– everything they do is directed at female non-cyclists who ride at SoulCycle multiple times a week.
More importantly, these non-cyclist ride year-round!
SoulCycle also understands that their Instructors are what make them so successful. Now that I was able to find and then download, the new SoulCycle iPhone App, it's abundantly clear that promoting each Instructor is the main focus of the App. Not only are they featuring Instructors, they've also added links to the favorite music each Instructor plays in class. Check out the bio page for “Stacey” who I just choose at random >
Each of those album thumbnails link to a sample in iTunes. Why not Spotify? Good question. My guess: everyone with an iPhone can play those tracks. Not everyone (yet) has Spotify. I also wouldn't be surprised if SoulCycle has an advertising agreement with Apple = they might be generating some ad $$$ every time a customer views an Instructor bio.
Ever construct the perfect threshold interval? Where everyone appears to be controlled by the music, hammering away as if they've lost connection with everything and anything beyond the pursuit of Zone 4?
THRESHOLD! THRESHOLD! NEED MORE THRESHOLD!
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The only way to satiate their lust for Threshold based effort is a proper warm up, a few openers and then an awesome song that's the right combination of intensity and BPM. In my book, the music genre that will feed your Threshold Zombies best is Drum & Bass. Easy to follow, D&B music tends to communicate high 80's to 90's RPM. Here's a few for you to try.
What I find to be the single biggest challenge as a new instructor is music- music flow, and knowing what drills or activities to do to what music.
I feel at such a loss though when it comes to setting up a class…. And feel as though I let hours of time evaporate listening to music but not knowing how to incorporate it effectively into what I am doing….
I don't know if it is too late, but I thought I'd throw in my couple of cents on this one.
Starting out, the music was overwhelming for me too. I thought I had a great library of music and so many ideas, but when I finally switched from being the rider to the instructor, suddenly I felt like I didn't know what I was doing! That's when I started tagging my music. I use a program called MediaMonkey, but there are a million ways this can be done – playlists, excel spreadsheets, notebooks. Start jotting down the songs you hear that when you hear them you think, “that would be a great song for…” I have lists of warm ups, cool downs, heavy climbs, fast flats, different emotions, song tempos and everything in between. Then, when I know what I want to do in class, I have a go-to list of songs to pick from. However, know that having a nice long list takes a while to come together, so you'll need to be patient as you develop your ear and the songs start trickling in. In the meantime, I encourage you to play other people's music and teach other people's profiles. You might be surprised how a song you don't think you like is actually amazing for what the creator chose to use it for in the profile. You can find great profiles here on ICI/PRO, or over at pedal-on. You can find lists like the one I described over at Spotify. The links are posted in a Pedal-On thread here: http://www.pedal-on.com/showthread.php?12446-Pedal-On-Collaborative-Spotify-Playlists. Don't be afraid to play songs chosen by other people. This is the single best way to find more music. It will open up genres to you, expose you to new artists and truly give you more music and ideas than you can possibly use! Good luck!
Hope all is well with you, John!
Krista
Endurance Coach and Stages Indoor Cycling Master Instructor Dennis Mellon adds:
John, let me know if this is what you are looking for.
Class Flow:
I believe the best way to insure class flow is with good class preparation. I also feel that class profile should come before music. A great profile can carry mediocre music but a great music cannot carry a mediocre profile. I would suggest putting together a class profile that supports your club’s training or class schedule program with a proper warm up, drills, sets with appropriate work to rest ratios, cool down and stretch, then add music that you feel works best with each segment. I think most instructors put too much emphasis on finding the perfect song for each and every segment of class. I only focus on the actual music for 2-3 songs per class then I use it to control the energy and/or motivate during the tougher segments of class.
I have posted a number of “The Power of 3” song sets on the ICI/PRO website that include music, set profiles, video and recordings of me teaching these sets during an actual class, these may help you “find the flow” you are looking for.
These are great suggestions Krista and Dennis > I'd like to add…
Irene, there was a time when most, if not all, of us have had difficulty with (to use your words) music- music flow, and knowing what drills or activities to do to what music. After 17+ years, and thousands of classes, this has become second nature.I'm thinking I should add your question to the list of things I struggled with as a new Instructor and have now forgotten, it was so long ago.
Wow… I just found the world's first 5% flat road.
Indoor Cycling has IMO too many “rules” that I feel constrain new Instructors and create frustrations similar to what you've expressed. Take for example the “rule” that; “X” cadence = “Y” terrain – i.e. 60RPM is a Climb, 90RPM is a Flat, etc… Rubbish. Yesterday I was riding outdoors. Looking down at my Garmin bike computer on a long, seated, threshold intensity climb, I saw that my cadence was hovering around 90RPM. Wait, that's completely wrong… isn't it? I am climbing a hill with a 5% grade, shouldn't I be peddling slower?
My point is that there are songs that, independent of their BPM, communicate something you can follow. By “follow” I mean responding in a way that feels natural to you – what could also be described as improvising. Hearing those “cues” contained in a particular piece of music, and then acting on them, is something you might need to learn. And for most people that requires, 1] practice and 2] developing the confidence to go whatever the music leads you.
Yesterday I shared a 40 minute mashup as the Free Friday music. Twenty three different tracks, of all different BPM's and intensities, professionally joined together that I feel would make a great practice session for you to practice your improvisational skills.
At $19.95 the ClassBuilder iPhone App from Cycling Fusion isn't cheep, but it has become the standard tool for Instructors who want their cues displayed at the correct time on their iPhone. Works with either iTunes or Spotify music and includes the option to connect to your video projector or TV to show your class profile.
Schwinn's free iPhone App is limited to iTunes music – which maybe exactly what you use! Add your time based cues and hit play for a well organised class.
This $25 Bluetooth receiver will connect your iPhone/Android device wirelessly to your club's sound system. Then you'll have full remote control of your music from anywhere in the room.
