Should i read royal road to card magic from beginning to end or should i skip around
- Thread starter Cemtrix
- Start date
This was the book to begin doing card magic. In the version I have, it specifically suggests that you read in order and just a few pages at a time (and then practice what you just learned). I followed that suggestion and found it “worked”.
Personally, I combined this with YouTube videos and was very satisfied with how I developed. To be frank, I probably learned more from trick tutorials on YouTube, but I definitely use stuff I read in The Royal Road.
At the end of the day, we can have very different learning styles and the key is to do it in a way that’s enjoyable for you. So follow your gut and go with what feels best!
Personally, I combined this with YouTube videos and was very satisfied with how I developed. To be frank, I probably learned more from trick tutorials on YouTube, but I definitely use stuff I read in The Royal Road.
At the end of the day, we can have very different learning styles and the key is to do it in a way that’s enjoyable for you. So follow your gut and go with what feels best!
Read it cover to cover and work through the sleights and effects. With that said, I think that Card College is a better resource (although more expensive) to learn from.
The problem with YouTube is that a lot of the teaching is bad. I often can tell people who have learned from YouTube because they hold the deck wrong (much more closed handling and often too deep), focus too much on their hands and tend to significant tells when they are doing a sleight (e.g. pausing right before it or looking down or being tense).
The problem with YouTube is that a lot of the teaching is bad. I often can tell people who have learned from YouTube because they hold the deck wrong (much more closed handling and often too deep), focus too much on their hands and tend to significant tells when they are doing a sleight (e.g. pausing right before it or looking down or being tense).
This is a great point. And those type of tips/thinking came from reading The Royal Road and maybe a little from a couple high quality, detailed YouTube channels. A good sign for a Youtube tutorial (Still no sure thing) is that the video is over 15 minutes long for one trick.
When I say I learned more from YouTube, those videos were much better for me in putting my mind in a place to think up my own variations on tricks and applications of techniques. The tricks in The Royal Road were kind of ‘meh’. My “act” early on would’ve been much lamer had I just read The Royal Road.
As @RealityOne said, Card College is the way to go, though it is quite a lot more expensive).
@EndersGame recently posted a thread in which he linked this eBook: https://theburnabykid.com/nwmb/JACK.pdf
It's basically an annoted Royal Road, updating some patter, fixing some of the technique and giving tips on the handling, and the author was kind enough to give it to us for free online. I haven't read much of it, but I liked what I read, so you might enjoy giving it a look.
Skip around.
You will find out which approach works for you eventually, but you won't find any approach unless you start.
Respectfully beg to differ. The Royal Road was specifically designed to be a systematic course in card magic, beginning with indispensable fundamentals, and building to more advanced techniques, all towards the ultimate goal of being an accomplished card magician. You wouldn't build a house by erecting only part of the foundation and then jumping to the first and/or second floor or roof of the structure. Just my opinion...
Thanks for saying this.
I really agree with you. And I had gotten this same advice when I had first gotten those books. And I did stick to it for sometime before starting to skip around. After that, I realised that I actually should have just gone sequentially through the book.
I don't think any advice's importance is realised unless the person asking tries out what they are asking for real (either they stick to good advice and are thankful, or they don't and they realise that they should have stuck to it, or they don't and they figure out that maybe they should have stuck to it but they don't repent trying out their own path).
Strange idea, I know.
Just my opinion.That is the reason I said what I said though I don't think I articulated it correctly.