Keeping Notes

[Derek Humberson]

Just curious how many of us take and keep notes to help us remember what we learn. For instance, a coworker showed me a card trick that blew me away. After 2 weeks of painfully trying to figure out the method he finally taught me the trick. So to remember the trick because I practice so many other effects, I wrote it down. Your usual shuffle deck, hand deck to spectator, they shuffle, have them select random card etc.... you get the picture... I have been considering taking alot of what I learn and dont get to practice frequently and putting into a small notebook. Just curious as to how others go about it... I also want to be able to keep it understandable for for me of course but also close friends in our community. And I also want to figure a way to keep it from revealing too much for my non magical folk

 

[B. Nikolay]

If you are planning to do serious card magic or slight of hand, you obviously have to have a lot of notes for materials, tricks, sources, etc..

 

[Gabriel Z.]

I have a one word answer, and that word is computer. Wave of the future. Most of what I can do is on my computer. If you have a password on your computer then non-magical folks wont have access to it. That is unless they know the magic word .

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I don't really keep notes on the material I'm learning. That's already in the books - I just remember which books it's in.

But I also pretty much only perform routines I create - so those are hand written in a notebook. Writing it by hand makes me remember it better, and it also makes me more careful with scripting. When it's permanent, and requires the effort of actually writing it, you tend to be more careful about word choice (Got that from Neil Gaiman).

 

[DaveWmson]

PLUS pen and paper never crash or get hacked. If I use the 'puter it's only as a backup. It's like my instagram...it's a digital backup only.

 

[Gabriel Z.]

PLUS pen and paper never crash or get hacked. If I use the 'puter it's only as a backup. It's like my instagram...it's a digital backup only.

It can get lost, rained on etc .... All mediums can be compromised.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Yeah. Notebooks can be lost, pens can leak and ruin pages, etc. Computers can crash, data can be corrupted, access to cloud storage can be revoked, etc. Memory can fail.

The best way to keep track of what you know is to practice and rehearse the material you actually use regularly, with refresher sessions for ancillary sleights or routines. Your mind is actually pretty reliable as far as things that are used regularly go.