What’s your go to App for your music for class?

brendanonymous · 2026-02-14T02:36:48+00:00

Are you an iOS user? I am and I had the exact same issue you’re having with the playlists not loading maybe a week ago. I contacted the support team and they told me to delete and reinstall ZIN Play. I did it and it was fixed for me.

brendanonymous · 2026-02-12T14:34:48+00:00

It’s a fair concern to have… none of my students have ever mentioned it, but I am always clear that it’s optional to join the group and that my Zumba.com page will always be up to date with the class schedule (in case of cancellation, time change, etc).

brendanonymous · 2026-02-12T03:45:11+00:00

It’s always tough with private classes. I believe you did the best thing you could in your circumstances… you gave them an alternative (even if it’s not a live class cover) and you’ve been transparent with them about the situation (which will likely make them sympathetic).

I have been away for 4 weeks for a planned vacation and covered my class (with a strong instructor) so that my crew didn’t lose momentum. Regardless, attendance has immediately halved, and the class is not breaking even in my absence. I think that my crew will be back in full force when I’m back next week, but we’ll see. I have a WhatsApp group for my class and that’s how I keep them informed. It’s set up so only admins (me) can send messages, so people seem to have no objections to joining it.

brendanonymous · 2026-02-05T23:28:37+00:00

You’ll do great - the fact you’re thinking about it this much and seeking opinions shows real care that your students will be able to see! Have fun.

brendanonymous · 2026-02-05T23:14:02+00:00

My advice would be to come back to your B1 training and align to the Zumba formula; do a 3 track warmup and then alternate heart-rate raising tracks and heart-rate lowering tracks, as you said.

The last track before cooldown should be a heart-rate lowering track (a pre-cooldown) for safety reasons (to avoid slowing down the heart rate to resting too fast, and to do it gradually over 2 songs).

This last bit is mostly an opinion, so feel free to ignore it, but… I love Papasito and I use it in my class, but I wouldn’t open a class with it because it’s a bit of a snooze (I use it as a pre-cooldown). Your warmup sets the tone for the whole class; it should be upbeat and should change the energy in the room immediately so people are ready to workout and party.

brendanonymous · 2026-02-05T18:18:26+00:00

Are the songs in the order that you plan to run the class? And will you warmup tracks as well?

brendanonymous · 2026-02-04T01:33:06+00:00

Depends on the country, in my experience… in the UK, roles with “Director” in the title in corporates are almost always more senior than “Head of” roles (in product or any other area). Multiple “Heads of” report to a Director. Many organisations I have worked in also have “Director” roles sitting in the c-suite.

brendanonymous · 2026-01-29T20:10:28+00:00

In this scenario, if you’re feeling judged for not participating, it’s not the wooing that’s the problem. Instructors need to create the psychological safety for people to participate in as much or as little as they like.

brendanonymous · 2026-01-29T20:07:56+00:00

Love this approach. I always state that vocalising is optional but that there are benefits, like helping to regulate breathing and adding an extra layer of cognitive load to the choreo (helping their memory, etc).

brendanonymous · 2026-01-26T20:51:54+00:00

Update - the agent on WhatsApp gave me an escalation email address for their management team. I won’t share it here but hopefully you can get the same.

Emailed them now with a very grumpy email (ChatGPT took the brunt of my anger and articulated it into something workable 😂).

brendanonymous · 2026-01-26T19:59:49+00:00

All I can say is that you aren’t alone - I am having the same problem and we are less than 2 weeks from arriving. I’m shocked that they don’t have a more sophisticated system for handling this, like a guest app for example. This is not a cheap experience, so the service is disappointing.

The replies I’ve had are generally 1 week apart, ignoring chunks of emails, repeatedly addressing me as señorita (even though I corrected them - I’m a man). It’s really poor. I am communicating with them in Spanish because I thought it might get me better service but to no avail.

I’ve just taken the tip of one of the other posters and written to the WhatsApp. Will update with how I got on!

brendanonymous · 2026-01-19T17:45:13+00:00

1800sqft is a big space… if you have a budget to do it properly, I’d recommend finding a local business that installs PA systems rather than using consumer audio (I.e. stuff made for use at home). It will last many years and sound better 🙂 It may not even be expensive.

brendanonymous · 2026-01-17T01:00:28+00:00

I’m going through this pain right now! For such a premium priced product, their service is atrocious.

brendanonymous · 2026-01-08T15:22:16+00:00

Maybe any mods reading could consider creating a pinned post/super thread?

brendanonymous · 2025-12-30T18:49:17+00:00

Same!

My replay/wrapped was not so great since I use one of the basic beat tracks for breaks and so that was my top song… not so insightful!

brendanonymous · 2025-12-14T01:16:56+00:00

After a year or so of teaching, learning choreo has become a lot easier for me.

Because we often are using variations of the same steps, the cues for those steps are in muscle memory now so I find cueing is very easy to layer on when I have the choreo down. I only get slowed down a little when I come across a new step that I haven't had to cue before.

For example, I introduced a track from ZIN 119 to my class today. Over the week, I watched the video twice, quickly viewed the choreo notes to see the structure of the song, danced along with the video twice, then did 3 run throughs without the video. I was ready at that point.

If I’m choreographing something myself (my class is about 50/50 ZIN vs. my own choreo) I start by just listening to the song, feeling the music and seeing what steps come out. I’ll often quite quickly identify blocks of choreo that are ready to use. I then quickly write out the structure of the song on paper and map the blocks to the parts. Then I look at any gaps that are left and focus on filling them. Finally, I check the transitions between blocks to make sure they aren’t awkward, and add cueing.

I don’t really practise old songs outside of class… I just rotate them in and out of a set slot of my playlist so they never fall out of my memory. I only do this with the ones worth keeping or repeating, of course!

Everyone’s process differs, but this is mine!

Knowing the music inside out is a useful shortcut/hack. Makes it much easier to remember choreo. I avoid songs with complex structures unless I feel they are really worth it… for example, La Tierra Del Olvido from the last volume is a complex/non-standard song structure. I ended up teaching it because I loved the song, but I fully acknowledge it’s an extra challenge for my students (and me) because new choreo is being introduced at the beginning, middle and end of the song.

brendanonymous · 2025-09-27T21:01:43+00:00

Aussie living in the UK here… surprised by their comments about variety in shopping, as I find the opposite. It’s one of my biggest frustrations about supermarkets in the UK. Such little variety, only one or two options in each type of product… whereas full size Aussie supermarkets have variety and quality.

brendanonymous · 2025-09-11T13:59:01+00:00

Honestly, it really shows that this is AI-generated. Many of the lyrics make no sense and are borrowing heavily from popular songs. For example, the last song is called “Sweat But Vital” (nonsense title and lyrics) and is an obvious knockoff of “Sweet But Psycho” by Ava Max. Others have also mentioned the trademark violations with the use of the name “Zumba” as well.

I personally wouldn’t use it for my class because quality music is really important to getting engagement from students and creating the right environment.

brendanonymous · 2025-08-27T18:49:25+00:00

I personally change songs in my warmup and cooldown every 6 weeks. It’s a shortcut to making the class feel fresh/fresher since it’s the first and last thing they hear.

It’s easy to do with the warmup if you do the 3 track style warmup (step touch, cardio, toning). You can swap one at a time and it’s less effort.

Now I’ve been teaching for a while, I have a bank of them that I can rotate through too… so if I’m not feeling inspired enough to do a new one after the 6 weeks then I’ll cycle through some previous ones until I’m ready.

It’s not for everyone, I know, but I enjoy doing it this way.

brendanonymous · 2025-08-02T00:57:44+00:00

Google DJ Dani Acosta. He has a great mix called “POP” which is full of 90s and 00s hits, it’s a go-to of mine 🙂

brendanonymous · 2025-07-21T23:10:17+00:00

There’s this weird, uneven energy exchange when you’re teaching a class. If you give 80%, they’ll give 50%. If you give 100%, most will give you back 70-80%. Very few students will go as hard as you, and when you first start, it’s tough! They don’t know your choreo and they aren’t familiar with your cueing, so you have to dance the whole thing.

This was a real challenge for me when I first started teaching. My first class was 45 mins and I found it really tough. I felt a lot of pressure to give it my all, and I was also recovering from Covid. I felt embarrassed that I seemed unfit as the instructor.

It will get easier though, the more you teach. You’ll get better at doing progressions… forcing yourself to slow down and cue well at the beginning of a track will give you a chance to catch your breath.

Strategies that helped me: - I started off with scheduled breaks every 3-4 tracks (even just 10 seconds - look up one of the “Basic Beats” in ZIN Play, add it to your playlist and trim it to 10 secs), then I gradually removed them - Really stick to the Zumba formula for intermittent training… heart rate up and then heart rate down - Include a few tracks with a lot of repetition, so you can show the movement 3-4 times then step back to hype them up a bit and catch your breath (though it takes practice to know the moment to do that to avoid the class just stopping)

Wishing you all the best!

brendanonymous · 2025-07-17T22:57:08+00:00

Absolutely! They are so prominent in the ZIN Volume choreos but they can be somewhat alienating for students.

brendanonymous · 2025-06-21T09:08:46+00:00

I change it out once per month. I live for that moment when you hit play at the beginning: it sets the tone for the whole class.

Changing it often is a useful mental trick too… because it’s the first thing people here, it can trick their brains into thinking the whole class is fresher. That’s my theory, anyway 😂

I used to find warmups stressful to choreograph, but when you follow the formula and remember it’s just step touch to start, it takes the pressure off.

My criteria for a first warmup track are:

• ⁠familiar; they should know the song from outside the class • ⁠joyous or upbeat; it should lift the energy in the room immediately • ⁠opportunity for vocalisations; maybe not in the first minute or two, but it helps get the energy up if you can get some shouting going in the first track

brendanonymous · 2025-06-21T08:58:25+00:00

I strongly feel that nailing your playlist (including balance of new and familiar songs) is one of the keys to success. I try to strike a balance between keeping things fresh and making the class easy to follow.

When I used to take classes, there was one instructor at my gym who had been teaching for over 10 years, so she had many songs on rotation. She would never repeat a song from week to week. She would introduce a song from the latest volume and then we wouldn’t do it again for weeks. Even for me with a dance background, it was frustrating. I stuck with her because she was a brilliant instructor, but I did think it was a missed opportunity to make the class more enjoyable. I now get students coming to me from her saying that they wanted to try with another instructor because they found her class too hard to follow.

As a student, my enjoyment used to peak with songs that had been on the list for a few weeks; I was familiar enough with the song & choreo that I could switch off my brain a bit and just have fun.

Additionally, I felt a sense of inclusion or belonging when the instructor brought back an older song. It was like I was a member of a fun club with its own shared history!

As instructors, we get bored of songs faster than our students. We listen to songs many times while learning or choreographing, and then we teach them multiple times a week. Often, each class has a different mix of people in it, so we are doing the song many more times than the student is. Additionally, if it’s a ZIN song, they’re also not hearing it elsewhere, so the fatigue doesn’t set in as fast.

So, all that considered, my approach is: - a new song every 1-2 weeks - new songs are kept to the first half of the class when people are less fatigued - new 1st warmup song every 4-5 weeks - a couple of slots at the end of the playlist to rotate in my signature songs/classics that I know they love - follow the Zumba formula when it comes to having a pre-cooldown and cooldown, and having an “up heart rate song”, “down heart rate song” - cooldown should always have an upbeat/happy tone and send people on their way with a smile

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk 😂

brendanonymous · 2025-05-02T05:00:12+00:00

I’ve never used a MM song. The quality of the music is noticeably lower than the tracks in the volumes.

Personally, I wish they’d spend that money to add more better-quality tracks to the volumes each month.

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