Shuffle problems making me scream

Question

I have 3,500 tunes on my iPod. I have carefully programmed some of my dozens of smart playlists to play randomly. These are the ones with Pop, Rock, R&B, Gospel, etc. Other smart playlists are programmed to play sequentially because they involve classical pieces which should be played in order.
So what's the problem? The problem is that the iTunes preference pane demands all play lists to be either shuffled or not, not some of each--which overrides all of my carefully programmed smart playlists.
Ditto the Shuffle choice on the iPod. It too overrides my carefully programmed smart playlists but in a different way. I have a smart playlist "my top rated" that includes all the Pop, Rock, R&B tunes which have a 4 star rating. That's 700 tunes. It's programmed to play randomly. But when I put the iPod on shuffle, the playlist balloons to 3,500 tunes and i hear an opera aria right after a Hootie and the Blowfish tune. Yuck! But if i turn off shuffle on the iPod, the playlist shrinks back to 700, but the random programming is gone and the iPod plods through the tracks in sequence.
How can i get iTunes to let me have my playlists the way i initially programmed them? Arrrrrgh!
Titaniium Powerbook, iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, 80 G iPod for Mac   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

The problem is that the iTunes preference pane demands all play lists to be either shuffled or not,
SInce there is no preference pane for shuffling, you need to specify what you are talking about.
Select a playlist and turn shuffle on or off (bottom left in iTunes). It is assigned only to that specific playlist.
I have a smart playlist "my top rated" that includes all the Pop, Rock, R&B tunes which have a 4 star rating.
Is the playlist set up like this;
Match ANY criteria;
Genre is Pop
Genre is Rock
Genre is R&B
My Rating is 4 stars.
This does not pick ONLY 4 star songs in those genres.
It picks ALL songs in those genres AND it also picks ALL 4 star songs in the library.
But if i turn off shuffle on the iPod, the playlist shrinks back to 700, but the random programming is gone and the iPod plods through the tracks in sequence.
{light bulb moment}
After I get to this point, I understand what is happening now.
On the main menu, Shuffle songs does not turn on the shuffle. It will simply select ALL music on the iPod and shuffle them. This is a a quick way to start listening to the iPod.
If you want to shuffle a playlist, you need to go to Settings -> Shuffle - and set it to Songs.
Now go to Music -> Playlists, select a playlist and press Play (not Select).
On the iPod, shuffle is all or none. You cannot set it by playlists as in iTunes.