Music special

What’s different about exercise music compared to clubland music?Exercise music really needs to have lots of positive uplifting energy and it needs to help motivate class participants to achieve their workout goals. Club music doesn’t have these restrictions so it can be a lot more diverse.

The BPM is also a very important factor in exercise music, whereas in a club or on a dance floor it’s not really that relevant and a DJ can generally play whatever style of track at any speed to suit the moment.

Also, club music does not necessarily need to be edited in any way, shape or form. Exercise music will usually have to have a really strong identifiable beat so it can be used in a class and it will also need to be phrased into blocks so that it is easier for the instructor to work with. I listen to the structure of a track to ascertain how the beats have been constructed and then I edit it so that

each segment of the track has an equal amount of beats and no odd drum or bass patterns.

What comes first when you’re planning a new mix?I start by planning what type of music I’ll be using on a particular CD. This is continually being updated as new tracks come through all the time. Working well in advance of actual track release dates, the majority of the music that I use has not been aired on commercial radio or television, so it’s key that I predict the tracks that I think will be chart hits. It’s a

case of listening to the various different mixes of each track and then filtering the tunes that will be suitable for each final track list. How do you ensure that you get the right music for the right class?Good-quality, uplifting music is essential. I have a very good knowledge of what type of music inspires and motivates people. That plus many years’ experience as a music producer and a unique knowledge of fitness trends is a pretty good grounding for compiling group X workout CDs.

I look at an album from many different perspectives, most importantly from that of the instructor and their participants. There are many tracks that are great tunes, but may not be suitable for a studio-based class. This could either be because of the way that the track has been structured or because of the odd phrasing of the song.

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makerMusic

You need to put yourself in the mind of a class member to understand how they might be feeling at that particular point of the workout

Matching the right music to the right group X class can make your class go with a bang. Fitpro talks to FitPro Music’s resident global music producer Dean Steer about his techniques.

In a successful weight-loss programme, exercise will only be responsible for 30% of the desired effect

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Which is the hardest class type to programme for? I wouldn’t say that it is necessarily hard, but it takes a lot of time to programme music that works well together for relaxation. Some relaxation music can be too sad and may stir many emotions in people so it’s important to select tracks that are a bit more refreshing and enjoyable to listen to.

How important is it to include current tunes as opposed to classics?FitPro members have told us that they love having the very latest music as it really helps with the energy levels of their workouts and the fact that it keeps their classes fresh.

However, we’ll never give up on the classics. There is that feel-good factor associated with older music and people all have their own personal memories, and that will help motivate and inspire them throughout a workout session.

How do you create a sequence that builds in intensity?It involves listening to the many different styles and mixes of each track and then deciding which of them will work well together as a group, while maintaining the energy that’s needed throughout the workout.

The structure of the track is key and I need to put myself in the mind of a class member to understand how they might be feeling at that particular point of the workout. That helps me work out which track is used to create the motivation and intensity required.

Do you trial the music with instructors before the mix is finalised?Yes, on some releases, and it’s good to

get feedback from a class environment – it gives me the opportunity to adjust and amend the track list to get the optimum final running order of tracks.

How do classes differ from one another?There are completely different components to each class and workout. Also, the way an instructor teaches the class can be very different. Some classes only need music in the background, whereas others can be fully choreographed to the exact beat of the music. There are classes which need the intensity to build gradually and then to cool down in the same manner. fp

See our other features on the following pages for practical points on using music.

Music special

T he link between music and movement is so overwhelming for me that sometimes I find it difficult to move without it. The

style has to be perfectly matched to both me and my session content. If it isn’t, it definitely makes a class seem more difficult than it needs to be. You have to work extra hard to create an atmosphere when there could – and should – be one naturally.

Make the track listing authentic to youI used to advise instructors solely to choose music that was suitable for their classes – even at the expense of their own personal taste. I think as time goes on, however, I see so many classes taught to generic, one-size-fits-all music, that I question how much of what’s being played is actually enjoyed by every instructor teaching with it. I think there’s a balance that can be struck between what you like as the instructor and what they like as a participant. If that balance can be reached, your overall performance, and subsequently the overall class experience, is heightened.

Look beyond the bass lineSmarter instructors will know their music inside out. Once this happens, the individual components of the song begin to emerge. No longer is it just about verse and chorus with a bass line acting as the glue; it becomes about hundreds of individual sounds that can be interpreted and used for maximum effect. Every 32-count block in the song will have some story to tell and it’s up to you as the instructor to write the narrative around that using your voice, face and body

language. That’s where the magic really starts to happen. Notice how presenters whose sessions you enjoy identify with the music and let that guide the mood of their session. They work the soundtrack for dramatic effect and understand how to build the sounds and nuances of each track into their verbal and visual delivery.

Go off the beaten trackBe brave enough to try something a bit different. The mixes that include current chart hits are always the most popular.

This is ideal for most of the time but, with radio now embracing so many dance remixes of chart hits, they get constant airplay. For anyone listening to a radio at work, it gets a little monotonous hearing the same mixes in class. There are always fantastic untapped mixes that sit in genres that you typically would never look at. Kickboxing CDs generally have a harder sound than normal aerobic CDs, yet they often share the same bpm.

Same thing goes for dance, step and body conditioning, whose bpm is often shared with presenter mixes and special themed releases like the FP Music Disco Motown and Soul CD among others. When you look a little further afield than the next release of remixed chart hits, you’ll find some hidden gems that will separate you from the rest of the instructors in your facility. fp

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In tune to the beatGroup X would just be ‘exercise’ if it wasn’t set to music and music is integral to what we do. Greg Sellar explains how you get the right mix.

There’s a balance that can be struck between what you like as the instructor and what they like as a participant

At Funkypump Fitness, music is a fundamental part of the concept. Director Jason Hole explains, “We have a DJ playing the music at our classes, which we hold in an imitation nightclub. We match the music with the exercises – pairing explosive music with explosive movements – and match the music to the instructor and the way they work. We also use recognisable music – an up-tempo, remixed version of a Red Hot Chilli Peppers track usually motivates participants more than an unknown track. The music should create an atmosphere.”

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Music special

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I t’s well documented1 that music, as an adjunct to a physically challenging task, helps listeners to dissociate with feelings of discomfort and

fatigue. However, it’s one thing to lead your participants through challenging aerobics choreography synchronised to pre-engineered fitness music. It’s quite another to follow your own musical instincts and successfully guide an indoor cycling class, say, through the sort of music that practically begs your members to leap out of the saddle into a hill sprint.

With that in mind, I want you to Google a five-minute YouTube version of Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out For A Hero. We’ll break down how the basic music structure can be harnessed to create great choreography – in this case, in an indoor cycling class.

In the opening moments, you’ll notice one particular pitch being reiterated on the bass guitar. The piano picks up the same note and ‘vamps’ around it to reinforce its prominence. They’re establishing what’s known as the tonic pitch or the key signature. This is a sort of harmonic homing beacon to which you can expect the music to return through a process called a cadence.

You can hear one of these cadences 30 seconds into the track, at the junction between the first bridge and verse. There’s a palpable sense of climax when the camp backing vocals croon “… ah, ah …”, then the harmonies shift, the tension discharges and the music cadences (at 0:33) into the first verse, neatly returning to the harmonic centre that the piano and bass guitar had established at the start of the track.

These cadences occur in different guises in most western pop music and are critically important because they’re explicitly located at the end of one 32-beat phrase and the beginning of another. Think of them as immovable musical milestones around which you must orientate your choreography. If you’re able to heed a cadence’s pre-emptive warning signs, you’ll be able to pre-cue your participants for a new choreographic direction, while harnessing their musical power order to launch your exercise fireworks with epic effect.

Detecting cadences isn’t always easy. Listeners can become disoriented, miss the warning signposts, or the music can deviously camouflage their approach. There are often other tell-tale signs which

belie there’s something brewing, though, and if you know what to look for, you can be ready to prompt your participants for change.

Descending drum rolls at the end of verse two, for example, sound the warning of an imminent cadence, as do piano glissandos (the quick flashy descending roll of the thumb down the keyboard you can hear at 1:59). Brass fanfares also perform the same sort of rallying call. These are the sorts of aural clues that you should pay attention to in order to ready your class for the next 32-beat sequence of choreographic treats you have in store.

Familiarity with your musical choices will, ultimately, help you pick up on the musical clues that aid you. Familiarity will help you remember, for example in this case, that you’ll need to hear that strange brass fanfare and those massive piano glissandos before you can initiate the seated hill climb you’d designed to take your participants’ breath away during the final chorus.

I’m not suggesting we forensically chart the structure of our freestyle music and rigidly pre-choreograph its every twist and turn. I’m advocating, however, that we trace, at least in our minds, a rough map of the music we use; that we trust our intuition and make a mental note of where the music doesn’t proceed as we might expect. Similarly, that we notice the aural clues that alert us to an impending cadence and, critically, that we orientate our choreography using these readymade bookends of music. With such preparation, we should at worst be able to avoid those sorts of agonising ‘out-of-phase’ disasters we’ve all had and, at best, weave more of those stratospheric ETM moments that will have our members begging for more. fp

Music is one of the most powerful tools in a fitness instructor’s armoury when it comes to motivating our classes. Musicologist and instructor Dean Craven shows you how to analyse a piece of music to further your understanding of how to choreograph successfully.

I use live music in my yoga classes. It’s been a trend for a while in the US and is really popular. I work with a didgeridoo musician who also plays the gong and Tibetan singing bowls. It’s a beautiful sound. I teach Kundalini yoga – the yoga of awareness – and the music really helps members stay in the present moment because you focus on the music rather than becoming distracted by thoughts. It helps that you can feel the reverberations of the didgeridoo and the gong physically. I run the classes every month or so and it doubles the crowd. My regulars treat it like a Friday night out and bring their friends. It’s a great selling point.

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In a successful weight-loss programme, exercise will only be responsible for 30% of the desired effect

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Mus i cto your ears

Music special

Do I need a music licence?Absolutely! When playing music in public, you are legally required to have a PPL licence. ‘Playing recorded music in public’ is defined by the UK courts as playing music anywhere outside a domestic environment; so, while enjoying a family party at home doesn’t require a licence, using music for group X definitely does.The licence ensures record companies and artists are paid for the use of their music. Record companies transfer their rights to the music to PPL, which then gives licence holders the record company’s permission to play their music in public.

Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, if you don’t obtain a PPL licence when you should, you are infringing copyright law. Pleading ignorance is no defence; you may face legal proceedings and be ordered to pay your outstanding licence fees plus PPL’s legal costs. You may also be prevented from playing recorded music until you’ve paid up and obtained a licence.

What about equipment?Don’t be tempted to buy the cheapest equipment to save money; these systems are unlikely to meet your needs and, like anything in life, you get what you pay for. Poor quality or lack of volume could reflect badly on your classes, so ask a specialist fitness audio supplier for advice before you spend a penny.

You’ll need to purchase a powered speaker with ‘music input’ and ‘mic input’ facilities. The music input connects the speaker to an iPod, CD player, MP3, etc., while the mic input connects your speaker to a microphone. A good-quality speaker will have separate volume controls for the music and your voice, giving you full control. Expect to pay around £200 for a good-quality, robust, commercial system from a specialist, depending on your requirements. Ideally, choose a system with slightly more power than you need. You can always turn it down if it’s too loud but, if it’s not loud enough, you’ll drive it too hard and cause problems.

You’ll also need a headset radio microphone system. Stuart Wilkinson from Sound Dynamics says, “Consider how many classes you’ll use your headset for. Go for a sweat-resistant headset system, specifically designed for the fitness industry. A headset system designed for a small number of classes is

around the £100 mark. However, the more classes you expect to use it for, the better headset you should get.”

Looking after your equipmentTake good care of your system and it shouldn’t need servicing. However, the more you use a headset, the quicker the cable will eventually wear out. Stuart adds, “We advise that headsets are wiped down after each use and left to dry. You should clean connecting sockets and plugs on a regular basis to remove dust or finger marks, which can cause intermittent connections. If you use a CD player, play a CD lens cleaner through it once a week to hopefully stop CDs skipping.” This is particularly pertinent the longer you have been using them, so long-term instructors take note.

To keep your equipment safe from moisture, dust, scratches and scuffs, you can purchase a

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Ask a specialist fitness audio supplier for advice, as poor quality and lack of volume reflects badly on your classes

You gotthe tunestaking your own music to classes

There’s more to playing music in your classes than grabbing an iPod and pressing ‘play’ Fitpro gives you the lowdown on staying legal and kitting yourself out.

In a successful weight-loss programme, exercise will only be responsible for 30% of the desired effect

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www.fitpro.com

specially made headset mic system carry bag, fitness pouch belt and speaker cover, designed specifically for fitness professionals by Urban Fitness and available through Sound Dynamics, which is safer than carting your equipment around in a carrier bag. As discussed in Fitpro April/May, use a headset microphone windshield, too, which covers the part of the mic that you speak into. This protects the

mouthpiece and avoids breathing noises coming through your

speakers.So, before you part with

your money, speak to a specialist provider who can

advise you on the equipment you need for your particular requirements.

And don’t forget to get that PPL licence sorted before you start! fp

To find out more about PPL and to apply for a licence, visit www.ppluk.com

To find out more about FP Music and licences visit www.fitpromusic.co.uk

For specialist advice on equipment, contact Sound Dynamics:

www.sound-dynamics.co.uk

If you hear the squeal of ‘feedback’, all you need to do is adjust the radio microphone and sound system settings to make the squeal disappear, while providing enough volume for your voice to be heard. Feedback usually occurs when a mic is too close to a loudspeaker. Ideally, the speaker should face the class and you should work slightly behind it, or at least parallel to it. Avoid turning the mic volume up too high and don’t walk in front of the loudspeaker.

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