Beginner needs advice on practice material

Aug 30, 2012
4
0
Hey guys, So I am a beginner and I have both Card College Volume 1 and Royal Road. The books are obviously great and the sleights are explained perfectly. The issue I am having is finding different ways to practice the sleights. Just doing the sleights over and over gets pretty monotonous, and it seems like it makes more sense to apply the sleights to various tricks. The card college tricks are ok, but there just isnt that many of them. For example the first card control section has two tricks, but it doesnt even use half of the controls taught in the chapter. Would you recommend that I grab a book that contains tricks to go along with the sleights I am learning? Or just stick solely to the Card College and finish the entire thing?I do not want to get ahead of myself, I would rather go slowly and learn everything perfectly.. so if just sticking to the simple tricks in the Card College book is recommended, Ill just do that. I am definitely not going to start buying individual effects, because I know that I want to master fundamentals and not fuss with things that I shouldnt be. I am thinking that there might be some appropriate books that would go along with the sleights I am learning. I feel that if there are more tricks available, I can select favorites to practice more easily instead of only having the limited amount from this book.
 

Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
2,966
1,101
Utah
Check out page 247 in Royal Road where it talks about routines. You could try to make it a goal to learn a whole card routine from the book. As far as practicing specific sleights I'll make a goal to do a sleight 100 times in a row. I'll get a pad of paper and make a mark every time I perform the sleight soundly. While I do this I'll listen to music or watch T.V. Once you have the sleight down you can introduce it into a trick and then the trick into the routine. If you don't want to just do a sleight over and over you can learn a trick with that sleight or better yet create your own effect or routine.
 

XabierL

Elite Member
Aug 14, 2010
413
10
David Stone recommends getting 100 matches. Every time you do the sleight correctly, just count one of them. If you do it wrong, start again from the very beginning.

More info: Real Secrets of David Stone (DVD)
 
Aug 30, 2012
4
0
Thanks both of you. Very helpful. I guess it is just about finding interesting ways to perfect the sleight. I will try what both of you have mentioned. Any other advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
You have to accept the fact that practice is going to get boring after a while. It's why most people never become good at anything: they don't have the patience.
 
Nov 2, 2007
246
0
Norway
Find an easy trick that packs a punch. RRTCM has a trick called design for laughter. Really simple trick to do. Practice it until you can do it without messing up. Do it for people. It's really important to get out there with 1 or 2 tricks and do it for people. It will motivate you to practice. Every time I do a trick for someone I find myself practicing more for the next few days.
 
May 3, 2012
22
0
i think that Royal Road and CC1 have plenty of tricks to get started, you should not worry about other books for a while.
Maybe you should try performing and see how you do, when i was starting sometimes i felt that i had a sleight well learned and when i performed maybe my timing was bad or i struggled so i think performing the sleights is also important
 
Aug 30, 2012
4
0
Thanks a lot. Ill just stick to the tricks and sleights in the book and perfect them. The worst thing I can do right now is get ahead of myself and become a ****ty magician with a million purchased effects.
 
Sep 8, 2012
86
1
first read the royal road to card magic. then, proceed to expert card technique, then erdnase. after that, continue with the classics. after a few books, you'll be ready for just about anything.
 
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