Using an iPod
Apple are reknowned for producing the most user-friendly products in the world, and the iPod doesn't disappoint.

Therefore, you could be forgiven for thinking that this section is quite unnecessary, but there are a few good tips and tricks for using an iPod with backing tracks, that may pass you by if all you do is switch it on and read the owners manual!

Connections
Depending on the model of iPod you have, you'll be connecting it to your computer via a firewire cable or a USB2 cable. If your iPod came with a dock, plug the flat end of the cable in to the back of the dock or directly in to the bottom of the iPod, being careful to make sure you squeeze the little buttons at each side of the flat end before clicking it in to place (watch out, they break easy)!

The iPod should display a message telling you not to disconnect it, and will prompt you to give it a name. The ability to "name" your iPod is really just a gimmick - naming your iPod doesn't actually act like a username or password or anything like that so doesn't stop someone else using it.

Charging
Your iPod will have come with a power pack to charge it up but if your computer has a powered firewire or USB2 card installed, you may find that it will charge the iPod. Easiest way to find out if your computer can charge the iPod is to let the battery run down, then connect the iPod to the computer, leave it on for a few hours, and come back later and see if it has charged up the battery.

iTunes automatic launch
When you connect the iPod to your computer, iTunes will launch automatically upon connection and will immediately sync the iPod to the iTunes library.
In effect, the songs on your computer (which iTunes finds) will be copied over to your iPod. Remember though that any songs on your iPod that are not on your computer will be deleted - the whole idea is that the sync will make the iPod a "mirror" of the songs on your computer. If for any reason you don't want the iPod to automatically sync upon connection, you can easily disable it from the preferences panel. The preferences panel will also allow you to stop iTunes automatically updating if you want (a quick way to stop automatic updating is to hold Ctrl + Alt on your PC while connecting the iPod).

You can manually update your iPod by simply dragging songs in to the iPod icon on the source list. Although the iPod is designed to only allow songs to be transferred from your computer to the iPod, you can actually do it the other way around ie transfer songs from the iPod to your computer. To do this, you'll need a little program called EphPod (http://www.ephpod.com).

If, for example, there is more than one iPod in your household but you all use the same computer, no problem - each user can organize his/her own playlists within a single copy of iTunes so when connected, the iPod will only sync with his/her songs (see playlists section below).

Disconnecting
To disconnect your iPod from your computer, whatever you do, don't just pull the plug out! Depending on the model you have, you may have to "unmount" it first (see your owners manual for specific instructions on how to disconnect safely).

About Playlists
Playlists don't contain any actual music. The best way to understand what a playlist is, is to imagine a DJ in night club playing records. He has hundreds of records and CD's containing thousands of songs to choose from, but he won't play every single song that night - instead, he'll have a little piece of paper with a list of, say, 50 songs he's chosen beforehand, written down in the order he's going to play them. That piece of paper is his playlist.

The iPod works in the same way. It has thousands of songs on its hard drive but you can make up individual playlists of 10, 20, or 100 songs of your choice which your iPod will play. So, instead of just playing one album after another, you can now make up a playlist containing, for example, only love songs, or another with a selection of your favourite Madonna tracks from the 3 Madonna albums you have on your iPod. The possibilities are endless because you can combine songs from all different albums, in any order you want. When playing backing tracks, try putting each individual backing track in a seperate playlist - that way the iPod will stop playing after each song, much the same way as you'd use the auto-pause feature on a minidisc deck.

The other great thing about a playlist is that you can delete a track on the playlist but it doesn't delete it from your main library/hard drive.

Making a playlist
To make a playlist, press the + button at the bottom of the iTunes source list and a new playlist will appear on the menu (you can give it a name). Then, simply drag the songs you want in to the playlist. Likewise, you can songs from the playlist by right-clicking (PC) and selecting clear.

To rename a playlist, click on it twice (slowly) just as you would to rename a file on a computer.

To delete a playlist without being asked to confirm, hold down Ctrl while you hit the backspace key.

iTunes can also produce "Smart Playlists" ie it automatically makes a playlist for you from certain "conditions" that you set. My favourite Smart Playlists are "Date Added" and "My Rating". The former plays all the newer songs I've added in recent weeks and the latter plays all my favourites. Brilliant!

The iPod in use
As I said earlier, the iPod is one of the most user-friendly products you'll ever use so there's little point in me going through each control function one by one. You'll already have discovered what the buttons do and even if you haven't, a two second glance at the owners manual will put you right! There are however a few extra functions built in to the buttons which are handy to know about and will help you get the most out of using your iPod.

Pressing and holding down the |<<< button let's you skip search through the song currently playing - handy if you want to play the first verse over again etc.

Holding down the stop/pause button for a couple of seconds turns the iPod off.

The scroll wheel can adjust the volume as well as it's usual track search job.

Holding down the select button (in the middle of the wheel) adds tracks to the On-The-Go playlist. The On-The-Go playlist allows you to select songs, one by one, directly from the iPod, and make them in to a playlist. Handy if you're out and about and not connected to your computer.

The rather annoying click sound every time you make selections can be disabled in the settings panel (hurrah)!

If you press the select button twice, you can "rate" a track give it a scale of 1 - 5. Let's face it, most albums contain one or two (or more!) rubbish songs, so if you rate each song on your iPod, you'll then know to skip those songs when you go to make up a playlist.

While one song is playing, you can, at the same time, be browsing through the list of other tracks. Most people don't realise that you can do this because they are so used to using old music formats like CD and minidisc where you can't disturb a track in any way until it has stopped playing.

Whatever you do, don't hit the language button by mistake! If you do, you'll need to understand the language you've changed to if you want to get it back to English! However, to save you running to the nearest language school for help, here's a quick way to get your iPod back to English and get you out of trouble: Press the menu button a few times until you get to the top level menu. Then select third from the bottom (which will be the settings). Then select the third item from that (which should be the language). Find English (or ingles or anglais etc) and select it. Voila...your back to a language you can understand!

You can adjust the start and stop times for a song if you want. "Why would I want to do that" I hear you ask? Well, suppose you have Michael Jacksons "Thriller" on your iPod...the first 20 or 30 seconds of this song only has the sounds of a door creaking and some footsteps. The music doesn't start till about 20 seconds in to the actual track. So, you can set this song to begin at, say, 25 seconds and skip all the sound FX at the beginning. Neat!