iTunes for Musicians: Organize Your Play-Alongs
Here’s a quick tip for musicians using iTunes.
Often, especially among guitarists, play-along CDs are included with many of the books you can buy nowadays. Organize these using iTunes, following a few simple tips to keep them from mingling too much with the rest of your music.
- Give them a Genre: Don’t keep a jazz play-along under “Jazz” and a Rock rhythms cd under “Rock”. Instead, dedicate a genre to these CDs (Play-Along or Music Education works fine).
- Make Smart Playlists:I have some play-alongs with over 200 short tracks. I keep them in a smart playlist that takes out tracks I’ve listened to more than 10 times. I do this because I want to practice all the tracks, und using iTunes to keep track of your progress is good - this way iTunes will guide you through the CD without you having to do anything, and seeing your progress (as the list gets shorter) will motivate you.
- Scan or Create Covers:I hate to add play-along CDs because their covers won’t show up in Cover Flow view. This is annoying, and I have ever since either scanned my CD covers or quickly created something in an image editor. Nothing fancy, just the text on a colored background or a googled image - anything to avoid the generic image iTunes puts up there.
- “Want To Play”:When I hear a song I want to learn to play, I usually forget about it unless I write it down - simply because I’ll hear some other song which replaces the old one in my ears. Keep such a playlist as an inbox to reference when you’re looking for something new to play. I glance at it and quickly get sheet music (legally bought!) or tabs from the internet.
- Maintain a strong rating system: Rating your music, and otherwise keeping it organized is the lifeblood of a musician’s library. Keep your tracks well-oiled and the meta-data relevant, and you can quickly and easily search the sometimes messy realms musicians tend to achieve in iTunes.
What are your productive iTunes tips for musicians or in general? Share your thoughts, I’m really eager to hear them.
Tags: cd_covers, education_works, inbox, itunes, jazz, learn_to_play, musicians, music_legally, playlist, rock_rhythms, s_libraryRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Your Instrument & You
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