How do you learn from books?

[MagicShadow9]

I've always been a video learner. I could read about a move in a book and totally not understand it. But once i see it on video i'd be like "Oooooooh, i get it now"

Now i realize that i will never get anywhere in magic without being able to learn from books. My main problem is that i have a somewhat short attention span when it comes to reading. Meaning i could read a whole page of a book and have no idea what it said. So is there a secret to learning from books? Or is it something you're born with?

 

[Sean_Raf]

You just have to be patient and go through it a few times, here are a few tips that I know I do whenever I read something in a book :

- Skim read through the whole thing, getting a general impression of what you can expect to be doing.
- Go through the first actions to get a solid foundation in the beginning steps.
- Go through two more actions seperately to get those solidy down too.
- Join everything so far together

Obviously you can then repeat this until you're satisfied you know it. I think... it's often hard to read through books if you have a short attention span like you said, because there's a lot of other material that's like "Ooh cool I'll learn that as well.. and this! and this!". My suggestion of which is, go through the book and find a real absolute gem that you like, once you've found it, practice it and really make it something you know you enjoy doing and you know you can wow people with.

Hopefully I'll have a video of one of my favourite effects from The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings up soon, I learned it exactly as I explained in this post, and I love it.

Hope that helped,
- Sean

 

[GusEds]

Here's some tips:

1. Try to read slowly, go through sentence by sentence, as if you were english challenged or something. Make sure you understand each sentence word by word, move by move. Break down the explanation!

2. Start learning from book with illustrations, they make life easier by telling you were you are at different stages.

3. Try sitting down in a comfy bean bag or window, read a book that interests you, action, adventure romance (there is anything for anyone, I promise )
this will get you more focused in reading and understanding what you've read. Read before you go to bed, read a llittle between classes, have some chillin' time with a book and cards. Get used ot it

This is definately not a thing you're born with. I, myself, love a good sitting where I can just read. But diferent people enjoy readin at different stages of their lives. So Chillax!

Gustav

PS: *waves fist* Damn you Sean! you beat me to it

 

[dragon521]

Jeez, all you have to do is read the damn thing over and over until you understand. Its isn't too difficult, though maybe I should put up a video tut so you can understand

 

[MagicShadow9]

Ok, so there's no misunderstandings, i'm not reading challenged. I read every day, normal books i mean. But there just something about magic books that makes me lose interest easily. With all the "on your left second finger's first phalange" and "place the right third finger on the upper left corner" makes it harder to follow than a normal chapter book.

 

[jok3r]

im exactly the same way, I tryed to read a little bit of expert at the card table and was lost.
Im going to try again soon =] and take it sloowwwww

 

[GusEds]

Ok, so there's no misunderstandings, i'm not reading challenged. I read every day, normal books i mean. But there just something about magic books that makes me lose interest easily. With all the "on your left second finger's first phalange" and "place the right third finger on the upper left corner" makes it harder to follow than a normal chapter book.

Alright, then just ignore my last point in my post. Look at 1 and 2.

I totally understand. I had problems the first night I tried too. But you know what I did?

I sat on my bean bag, one sunday evening, I opnened the book with cards and hot choco in hand (gotta love hot choco ) and read the book, every two or three sentences I would stop, look at my hand, understand what it had said.

By this I mean I would feel the parts that were suppoed to be used, flew them, try them out with some cards. That way, It wasn't just a read, read, read, get lost, read, read experience.

Another pice of advice is to not actually have cards in hand, but have them close by - so you're not tempted to stop or anything. Just use your fingers and hands.

Try it out!

Gustav

 

[mini magician]

Alright, then just ignore my last point in my post. Look at 1 and 2.

I totally understand. I had problems the first night I tried too. But you know what I did?

I sat on my bean bag, one sunday evening, I opnened the book with cards and hot choco in hand (gotta love hot choco ) and read the book, every two or three sentences I would stop, look at my hand, understand what it had said.

By this I mean I would feel the parts that were suppoed to be used, flew them, try them out with some cards. That way, It wasn't just a read, read, read, get lost, read, read experience.

Another pice of advice is to not actually have cards in hand, but have them close by - so you're not tempted to stop or anything. Just use your fingers and hands.

Try it out!

Gustav

MMM hot choco but your right more than likely put your cards to the side and read and do it with your hands because you might all o f a sudden start using your cards and get distracted.

 

[magicman384]

MMMMMMMMMM, Hot chocolate

Edit: screw you mini magician for beating me to it. JK

 

[Dude291]

im exactly the same way, I tryed to read a little bit of expert at the card table and was lost.
Im going to try again soon =] and take it sloowwwww

Expert at the card table... man thats the most difficult book in magic ¬¬ thats why you dont get it xD
that happened to me also when i was starting out and had a look trough that book. I was like crying because it was frustrating x100 and thought that learning magic from books wasnt for me.
Then i tried card college and BAM! there it is ;D

 

[Mikkyo]

Ok, so there's no misunderstandings, i'm not reading challenged. I read every day, normal books i mean. But there just something about magic books that makes me lose interest easily. With all the "on your left second finger's first phalange" and "place the right third finger on the upper left corner" makes it harder to follow than a normal chapter book.

When you think of magic, what emotional quality would you categorize it with? More than likely - stimulating. When you watch a video, your brain is stimulated because it fits your perception of what magic should be for you. When you read about magic, it isn't so much stimulating as it is instructional. By reading about it instead of watching it, the written words may not support your association that you have about it.

We take in and learn information in 3 primary ways - visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Each one of these modes has its place, and, their own limitations. If I would tell you verbally, for example, how to do a sybil, we might be here for a while. If I tried to write down, in words, how to sing a solfège, again, it would not be as practical as hearing it.

By trying to learn something in a way that is not the most practical or efficient for you does not mean that it is impossible. It just makes it more difficult. You can, through perseverance, relearn how to learn magic from books. Its gonna take some time however. Be patient and work through it.

You may also be able to trick your mind a bit into learning magic more easily from books (no pun intended). Here are some ideas to try......

Read it aloud - read the effect that you want to learn word for word in your mind. Then read it out loud. By doing so, we gain auditory as well as visual stimulus.

Record it - take the instruction off the page by reading the effect out loud and recording it. Listen to it over and over. Add pauses where necessary. Listen to it when you are actually practicing it.

Get a loved one or friend to read it out loud and record them and try the same thing. This may induce receptivity to the instruction because of your association with that person.

Rewrite it - rewrite the effect in your own words so it is in a language that you can relate to. You may want to even try to record your rewritten instruction and listen to it while you practice.

Use books to back up your video instruction - if you are trying to learn something, find a vid that has the instruction. Also find several books that contain the same effect or move and use them in conjunction to support each other.

Lastly, add distractions. Something as simple as turning on the TV or radio for background noise can cause your mind to focus more on what you are trying to learn.

Hope this helps, best of luck.

 

[jprace]

See what Simon Lovell has to say about 'visual learners' in Reel Magic Magazine issue 3.

http://www.reelmagicquarterly.com

 

[jok3r]

Expert at the card table... man thats the most difficult book in magic ¬¬ thats why you dont get it xD
that happened to me also when i was starting out and had a look trough that book. I was like crying because it was frustrating x100 and thought that learning magic from books wasnt for me.
Then i tried card college and BAM! there it is ;D

haha maybe that was my problem

 

[r.zhang]

Take notes. That's all I have to say. If you see something that'll confuse you for example "put your third finger here, etc" then write it down as your ring finger and try to accurately describe the actions of the move in your notes. That's how I'm currently working through Erdnase's book.

 

[Teddy94]

Mostly I try reading them... if that doesn't work, I give up.

 

[MagicShadow9]

Haha, teddy your avatar is a rip off of Gustav's

 

[GusEds]

I should sue you Teddy

I changed mine though;

Gustav