TempoCue is a mobile app for Android \u2013 a music player built for group fitness instructors. It is made by BeeClear, a developer of WordPress plugins and smartphone apps. This article covers one feature of the app: bookmarks in long tracks and mixes. A bookmark marks a chosen spot in a recording, so you can jump back to it during class without scrubbing. We will follow one evening of an instructor who teaches to a single hour-long mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The problem before Anna’s Thursday dance fitness class is that the whole session runs on one long mix. The recording lasts about an hour and carries the group from warm-up to cool-down. A continuous mix feels smooth, because the music never stops between songs. The trouble starts when the plan changes. A request to repeat a routine or a late start is enough to turn the mix into an obstacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an ordinary player, Anna would have to scrub through the recording by eye. One hand holds the phone while the other hunts for the right minute on the progress bar. Meanwhile the group stands still and their muscles cool down. Every pause like that breaks the room’s rhythm more than a missed step ever could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TempoCue bookmarks organize a mix well before class by turning an hour of music into a map of cue points. In the afternoon, Anna listens to the recording at home and marks its key moments. The first marker goes on the start of the main routine, the second on the high-energy section. The third flags the calm part for stretching and cool-down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These points are not random. Anna marks the places where her class plan most often changes. The start of the choreography is the obvious candidate for a repeat, and the calm ending is a lifesaver when time runs short. The energetic middle section comes in handy when the group still has plenty left in the tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While she is at it, Anna sets a target tempo and locks it for the whole playlist. The app changes playback speed without changing pitch, so the mix still sounds natural. The playlist remembers its own tempo and the exact gap between tracks. On Thursday evening there is nothing left to adjust. Those saved playlist settings will also carry over to every class that follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting a class with a marked mix comes down to choosing the playlist and pressing play. It is a few minutes past six, the group is lining up, and Anna puts her phone on the windowsill. TempoCue keeps the screen awake during playback, so the display does not go dark in the middle of the warm-up. Playback can also be controlled from the phone’s lock screen. Anna faces the group and demonstrates the first steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The studio is in a basement, where the signal is unreliable. The app works offline, though, and plays files stored on the device. A dropped connection cannot stop the music halfway through the choreography. Anna also knows that three important spots in the recording are already marked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the group asks to repeat a routine, Anna jumps straight to the marked start of the choreography. It is twenty minutes into class and the new sequence has not sunk in yet. Some participants mix up the order of moves, and the rest are happy to run through it again. Instead of scrubbing by eye, she just picks the marked spot in the app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The music picks up exactly at the start of the routine, at the same locked tempo. Participants hear the familiar opening and know right away where they are. Anna counts them in instead of searching the progress bar. The repeat takes as long as it needs, and nobody cools off while waiting. Does the group even notice the pause? Usually not, because the jump takes only a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bookmark helps when class is running out of time by letting you skip straight to the cool-down. That day, the previous group left the studio late, and the repeat took a few extra minutes. Forty minutes in, it is clear the full mix will not fit. Cutting the stretching short would be a poor choice for tired muscles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Anna drops one high-energy block and selects the marked calm section. The gentler music shifts the mood in the room, and the group moves smoothly into stretching. Class ends on time, with a full cool-down. The plan changed, but the structure of the workout held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is how the same evening plays out with scrubbing by eye and with marked sections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n After class, the instructor fine-tunes the mix based on what happened in the studio. Anna noticed that the group kept getting lost on one transition in the middle of the sequence. So she adds a fourth bookmark right at that spot. Next Thursday she can go straight to it without replaying everything from the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She is also thinking about a new beginner group starting next month. For them, she will build a separate playlist with the same recording and a lower target tempo. After all, each playlist remembers its own tempo and gap between tracks. The two sets will not get in each other’s way. The evening ends with a plan for the coming weeks, not just relief after a tough class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bookmarks in a long workout mix are most useful when classes rarely go exactly to plan. That is often the case when teaching new choreography, because the first attempt almost never goes perfectly. The same goes for beginner groups, which need more repeats than regulars do. A marked mix lets you adapt the flow of the workout to the people in the room. The recording no longer dictates a rigid script for the hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same feature works just as well for long single tracks. Mark the chorus or a strong drop, and you can return to it during the workout. Either way, the instructor gains the same thing: quick access to the right section. Instead of fighting the music, you lead the class and watch your participants’ technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can prepare your own bookmarked mix in a few simple steps, ideally the day before class. TempoCue is free to download from Google Play. Keep in mind that your music files need to be stored on your Android device. Then just work through the recording the way Anna does:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the studio, all that is left is leading the group. Repeating a routine or cutting the ending short no longer means frantic scrubbing. You will find the full feature list on the TempoCue app page. Prepare one marked mix and see how much calmer your next class feels.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An hour-long mix, a request to repeat a routine, no time for the ending. See how TempoCue bookmarks get an instructor through class without scrubbing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":909583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_beeclear_ctt_text":"","_beeclear_ctt_class":"","_beeclear_ctt_element":"","_beeclear_ctt_is_custom_code":false,"_ca_focus_phrase":"bookmarks in a workout mix","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1170],"class_list":["post-909582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile-apps","tag-tempocue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909957,"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909582\/revisions\/909957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beeclear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Moment in class<\/th> Scrubbing by eye<\/th> With TempoCue bookmarks<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Repeating a routine<\/td> hunting for the minute on the progress bar<\/td> jumping to the marked start<\/td><\/tr> No time left for the ending<\/td> skipping the stretch or scrubbing in a hurry<\/td> skipping straight to the cool-down<\/td><\/tr> Where the music resumes<\/td> a random point in the recording<\/td> exactly the chosen section<\/td><\/tr> Instructor’s attention<\/td> on the phone<\/td> on the group<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n What does the instructor fine-tune in the mix after class?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When are bookmarks in a long workout mix most useful?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How do you prepare your own bookmarked mix before your first class?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n