Today's free track is included on Chris Nielsen's Going The Distance Audio PROfile class playlist – but isn't available on Spotify. It also works very well following last week's recovery track = communicates a very intense segment in your profile.
As you listen to Medieval, you may hear yourself telling the story woven into the music. Powerful horses approaching and then running through the village square, then continuing cross-country. Unrelenting in their speed as they cross a vast distance, until finally reaching their destination.
The artist is Etnoscope and you'll find a number of powerful 70ish RPM tracks there on Spotify.
What constitutes the perfect mid-class recovery song?
For me it needs to combine a mid 90's cadence, something everyone can connect with and a fresh/fun vibe – almost playful maybe?
Nothing too complex, confusing or heady.
A song that says; take it easy, just enjoy your time here right now… because it could will really suck a few minutes from now, once we get into our next effort 🙁
Direct download of the mashup Lazy Boxer & Naive Tales or click the Download button on the player to go to their facebook page, like them and download it there.
Laggard, Noun – def: one who's hanging back, or falling behind.
I admit it. My internal, unspoken motto has been, ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’. I did not walk until I was 16 months old- crawling was fine with me. What can I say?
As you might imagine, John has made fun of my music ‘process’ for years. Here is generally how it went:
Gather CD’s, or order and wait for them from the library
Listen through them on impossibly long commute to day job
Note good songs
Download to itunes
Make playlists on itunes
Burn playlist to CD
Just recently, download playlist to ipod
I started to feel the pain of my laggard like ways. Much like I must have felt when I finally started to walk, I felt the need to update my music process.
My jump into Spotify-land has been so much fun. No more having to order CD’s and wait for them to come in. No more downloading and burning.
The process is so simple. The details on getting started are here. I love to go to Spotify, put in a band or song name and have ALL the titles pop up. I love that my playlist is on my phone. No more CD’s (this is only a problem when I drop my phone in the toilet!) Even more than that, I love saying to my students, ‘If there is a song you would like to hear in class, just let me know and I can pop it into a future ride, no problem!’
Thank you, John, for making fun of me and ultimately making me feel enough pain to update my music process. I am so happy.
If you have not tried Spotify, do. I think you will like it!
I've described her at times as the Human Metronome for good reason – the girl knows how to follow a beat.
And yes, when she and I dance, she leads.
As the Senior Group Fitness Instructor here, Amy has skills she's developed from teaching and cuing aerobics classes that can benefit both you and your participants.
One is how she will introduce a Waltz to help those of us who are rhythmically inept learn to hear, follow and pedal to the actual beat of the music.
Listen below to Amy explain why a adding a few Waltz tempo tracks to your playlist could potentially help those Laggards in class finally “get it.” At the end we've recorded Amy's actual presentation to her class so you can learn how you might introduce a Waltz to your students.
NOTE: Chim Chim and the two versions of Kiss from a rose we've used may be the most universally known tracks we're aware of.
Like a good man-a good flat is sometimes hard to find 🙂
Got one for you this week though. Daughter Abby (our oldest) is STILL home from college and asked me to listen to this artist, as she is going to her concert in February.
She reminds me a bit of Alicia Keyes. Lots of soul and great musicality. Quite new to the music scene, her first album was released in October 2012, so you might not have heard of her… yet.
My latest profile is 3 climbs to AT with a flat in between. We are not recovering on the flats, but simply going back to ‘base’ watts at high zone 2/ low zone 3, which we established early in our ride. I have been using ‘Til the Casket Drops’ by ZZ Ward for one of the flat roads in between the climbs. At 3:06, and 88 rpm’s, it is the perfect back-to-your-base motivational flat road tune.
This won't replace Spotify, but if you enjoy a steady stream of background music, that's geared to your activity or mood, Songza maybe something you'll enjoy.
Available in the USA and (if you can believe it with their very restrictive licensing) Canada, Songza is the latest of the free streaming music services following Pandora, iTunes and Spotify.
Songza has been around for a while and appears to be gaining peoples attention and influence, but there isn't much press about them. I did find this article from CNBC.com
Songza is a music streaming service that aims to provide what Roman calls a “soundtrack for your life,” matching curated playlists to the time of day, day of the week, your taste in music and what you're doing while you're listening (i.e. waking up, working out, eating dinner, etc.).
Working? Relaxing? At the gym? Songza plays you the right music at the right time.
What makes Songza different is how they've created playlists based on common activities. Doing some housework? You can cue up one of more than two dozen different playlists. Working at home and would prefer music without lyrics? They have a bunch. Making out? At a formal dinner party? Shopping at a vintage store? All covered + over 30 more.
I wasn't much of music background person until Amy bought us this Sony RDPX200iP Docking Stationfor us for Christmas. So it's very cool for me to have either Spotify or now Songza playing while I'm doing whatever. Only trouble is that then I don't have Shazam available if I'm using my iPhone – but Songza will also play from your computer, so it's a great discovery tool for finding the perfect track for your next class. Get the free app for iPhone/iPad or Android.
Think your latest playlist is the bomb? You can even contribute your work to Songza – but for licensing reasons you can't listen to it yourself.
NOTE: while I was experimenting with Songza it occurred to me that there's no way to prevent Songza from using your 3g/4g data service unless you place your iPhone on airplane mode and then turn the wireless back on = no phone call from Ed McMann telling you that you've won the publisher's clearing house sweepstakes or from one of your college students that it's time to pay for another semester. Not finding an answer on their support page, I sent and email and will follow up when I know more.
for us for Christmas. So it's very cool for me to have either Spotify or now Songza playing while I'm doing whatever. Only trouble is that then I don't have Shazam available if I'm using my iPhone – but Songza will also play from your computer, so it's a great discovery tool for finding the perfect track for your next class. Get the free app for