HELP! I'm going crazy trying to organize my music into folders!

Question

I am managing my own music which I need to do.
I've now got thousands of playlists, each usually an album or artist name. For example I've got over 33 Madonna albums. Just my "A's" to get through on the playlist require my thumb to go around the wheel dozens of times.
I need to have folders, I would like to name them "A" and have all my playlists that start with A under them. I'm thinking "M" followed by a subfolder "Madonna" followed by a playlist with a playlist for each Madonna album.
It is not letting me do any of this. I can make a folder but then it won't let me drag it to my ipod. I create a folder and try to drag a playlist into it and it won't let me. I can't deal with this much music anymore. There has to be a way to use folders for this.

Answer 1

It's not difficult to use but if you are used to doing it a differnt way, it may be confusing.
You're gonna have to try to not apply what you used to do.
In iTunes, go to menu Edit - Show browser.
This will show a list of Genres, Artists and Albums.
Click on any of these to view just that info.
Same on the iPod.
Go to Music -> Artists -> Albums
or Music -> Genre -> Artist
or Music Albums
or Music -> Playists.
Yes, you can create folders in iTunes under playlists. This will help keep your playlists a bit organized.
I have two folders, one for my playlists and one for my daughters playlists.
However, these folder do not get transfered over to the iPod. Only the playlists get transfered.
To get Artist>Album>Playlist, on the iPod, use Music -> Artist -> Album and press Play.
In iTunes select the artist and the album and press play.
You don't need a playlist for an artist or album.
To play all songs by an artist (or Genre) , simply select the artist and press Play
iTunes and the iPod are not as friendly for classical music. Many people edit the ID3 tags to exchange the Composer and Artist fields. This way everything from Strauss will be shown under Strauss instead of the 27 different orchestras who recorded Strauss.
Here's a good place to start -> iPod 101 - Master Your Music and More
It explains the basics of iTunes and the iPod.
If you have questions, feel free to ask them here.
Try and be specific about what you are trying to accomplish.