The good way to practice?

[pbernardo]

Hello people!

I am just beginning with card magic, using The Royal Road ...https://www.theory11.com/forums/threads/35-years-old-beginner.46594/.

I wonder about the best way in your opinion to progress.
For example, I mean, even something as fundamental as the overhand shuffle or false overhand shuffle and card control I find that the have a lot more technique than it looks and find difficult to make in a clean way.

If I understand it correctly, those thing should be very well done before continuing with the next thing. Is it that way?

How do you practice those thing when just beginning. Just sit and shuffle and shuffle for hours? Or am I just looking too much into technique and should learn more things and just go mixing practice?

Thank you.

 

[Maverick85]

For me, the best method would be to get 1 effect nailed. I like the "key card" effects (Look on this site for Blake Vogt's Surefire, it's free). That's a no sleight trick that will allow you to start performing for friends and family, developing patter, and developing your showmanship. (performance tip, I've been using a variant of Surefire for years. I know how I pick up each card and flip it, so I know where my fingertips touch the card. When they place their card on the stack, I ask my spectator to gently, and as non-suggestively as possible, caress their card in a certain spot so my fingertips will easily touch where they touched their card, thus enabling me to find the card because I can feel and sense where their fingertips touched. The trick becomes 99% presentation and 1% cheesy card trick.

Then, don't learn another trick for a while. I know, makes no sense, right? Yes it does. Learn the classic pass, Hermann pass, a good double lift technique, perhaps a few assorted palms and a good break technique. Get your toolbox filled with those skills that many effects require so you can approach a new trick and not have to spend time learning a totally foreign move just to do the trick. An Ambitious Card routine is great trick that does impress but if you struggle doing a clean double lift... it makes a simple trick seem much more difficult.

Then go wear out decks. Sorry to say it, but this is the step where a lot of beginning magicians hit the wall and go no further. 99% of the moves a card magician does are visually simple but technically difficult. Like flying an airplane, seat time counts. It took me about 60 hours to perfect my faro shuffle interweave to a level that's quick and flawless. It took me about 2 months of daily practice blocks of 5-10 hours to perfect my pass. The practice for both is the same: sit at the desk and while you're doing forums, checking email, reading articles, you're practicing. I didn't count but I probably did 20,000 faro interweaves to make it look impressive. It's all about seat time.

Another tidbit: get your hands on tutorials for the tricks you want to do. Don't try to learn them immediately, just figure out what "moves" you'll need to complete the trick. This way, you know what moves you need to perfect. This is going to fill your toolbox with skills that will allow you to do what you want to do sooner.

Card magic is supposed to look so simple that the average user should be able to do it. That's what makes it so hard to learn: it's easy to make a difficult thing look difficult but it's ten million times harder to make a difficult thing look dumb simple. That's where all the practice time comes in. The good news is that anyone who wants it can do it, even if you have problems like Mahdi Gilbert. The bad news is... there's no way around just logging the time and learning the craft.

I hope I have helped.

 

[RealityOne]

@Maverick85, there is a lot of information there that would take at least a year or more. My advice is to start slow and have fun.

When you begin card magic, it takes some time to get used to handling cards. The best way to learn how to handle cards is to handle cards. There are some shuffling exercises using the overhand shuffle in Royal Road (actually, I think there is a typo in that section which will become apparant when you start doing it). Those are good to do. But also learn a couple of the tricks to perform. A Poker Player's Picnic and Designed for Laughter are great effects. Also, feel free to read ahead in the book as you are perfecting theearlier stuff. There is no reason you can't learn the material out of order. One of the things I like about RRTCM is that it teaches you the sleights and then the effects. Practicing performing the effects is practing the sleights.

 

[pbernardo]

For me, the best method would be to get 1 effect nailed. I like the "key card" effects (Look on this site for Blake Vogt's Surefire, it's free). That's a no sleight trick that will allow you to start performing for friends and family, developing patter, and developing your showmanship. (performance tip, I've been using a variant of Surefire for years. I know how I pick up each card and flip it, so I know where my fingertips touch the card. When they place their card on the stack, I ask my spectator to gently, and as non-suggestively as possible, caress their card in a certain spot so my fingertips will easily touch where they touched their card, thus enabling me to find the card because I can feel and sense where their fingertips touched. The trick becomes 99% presentation and 1% cheesy card trick.

Then, don't learn another trick for a while. I know, makes no sense, right? Yes it does. Learn the classic pass, Hermann pass, a good double lift technique, perhaps a few assorted palms and a good break technique. Get your toolbox filled with those skills that many effects require so you can approach a new trick and not have to spend time learning a totally foreign move just to do the trick. An Ambitious Card routine is great trick that does impress but if you struggle doing a clean double lift... it makes a simple trick seem much more difficult.

Then go wear out decks. Sorry to say it, but this is the step where a lot of beginning magicians hit the wall and go no further. 99% of the moves a card magician does are visually simple but technically difficult. Like flying an airplane, seat time counts. It took me about 60 hours to perfect my faro shuffle interweave to a level that's quick and flawless. It took me about 2 months of daily practice blocks of 5-10 hours to perfect my pass. The practice for both is the same: sit at the desk and while you're doing forums, checking email, reading articles, you're practicing. I didn't count but I probably did 20,000 faro interweaves to make it look impressive. It's all about seat time.

Another tidbit: get your hands on tutorials for the tricks you want to do. Don't try to learn them immediately, just figure out what "moves" you'll need to complete the trick. This way, you know what moves you need to perfect. This is going to fill your toolbox with skills that will allow you to do what you want to do sooner.

Card magic is supposed to look so simple that the average user should be able to do it. That's what makes it so hard to learn: it's easy to make a difficult thing look difficult but it's ten million times harder to make a difficult thing look dumb simple. That's where all the practice time comes in. The good news is that anyone who wants it can do it, even if you have problems like Mahdi Gilbert. The bad news is... there's no way around just logging the time and learning the craft.

I hope I have helped.

Sure you help. Good advices.
I must say that I have no problem with sitting and do a single thing practice for hours, not looking for shortcuts. I am a software developer and I know the the meaning of study and practice a skill for days and days.

My doubt was if was the correct aproach. So yes, you actually helped a lot.

Advicing to learn the hard way is not bad news, in my opinion, is just being real.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[pbernardo]

@Maverick85, there is a lot of information there that would take at least a year or more. My advice is to start slow and have fun.

When you begin card magic, it takes some time to get used to handling cards. The best way to learn how to handle cards is to handle cards. There are some shuffling exercises using the overhand shuffle in Royal Road (actually, I think there is a typo in that section which will become apparant when you start doing it). Those are good to do. But also learn a couple of the tricks to perform. A Poker Player's Picnic and Designed for Laughter are great effects. Also, feel free to read ahead in the book as you are perfecting theearlier stuff. There is no reason you can't learn the material out of order. One of the things I like about RRTCM is that it teaches you the sleights and then the effects. Practicing performing the effects is practing the sleights.

Good one. So going slow but mixing the basic skill with some basic tricks. Probably that makes it also more fun and helps practice at the same time.

 

[Maverick85]

Good one. So going slow but mixing the basic skill with some basic tricks. Probably that makes it also more fun and helps practice at the same time.

What I like about this method over the way I learned is that by getting a couple essentially self working tricks under your belt, you get to go perform and show off something. You're not just getting dungeon madness going "pass, pass, pass, pass, pass," until your cards magically get thrown across the room with great force.

I basically locked myself in my room and practiced every minute I didn't have to do anything else. Every move was learned one at a time and just before bed I'd spend half an hour running through the "moves" I knew. Overhand, Faro, Break, Double. Overhand, Faro, Break, Double. If I'd had the sense to learn a couple of easy tricks so I'd have something to take out and show, I'd have enjoyed the journey much more. A good self-working trick, you'll need a few hours making sure you have the method, but when you've got it you can then carry your deck with you and do the trick for others to make picking up your deck fun instead of just drudgery.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

My biggest piece of advice, which I have mentioned several times on these forums I'm sure, is to break up your practice. Marathons are not good in this case.

The way I practice is to do a move until I notice an improvement. Then do it a few more times to repeat that improvement, then move on to something else completely different for a while. As in, if I was practicing the Two Handed Shift from Erdnase - I worked on it for maybe 20 minutes until I was sure I had either improved or at least solidified something about it. Then I would switch to, say, a Second Deal. Totally different set of movements.

This allows the neural pathways in your brain (The physical cells and such that transmit information, ie: muscle memory) to form properly instead of muddying them up by practicing too long.

I also break every new thing down as much as possible. Step by step, movement by movement, finger position by finger position. When I am first learning it, I tear it apart and study what makes it work.

Once you've got the independent physical moves for a trick down, string them together and start practicing going from one to the next seamlessly, without thought. Once you're going through the physical movements with muscle memory, start doing the same thing but with your script spoken out loud.

Remember - practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent.

Another thing - You can visualize doing the moves and that will help as well. When we thoroughly imagine something, really putting ourselves into the imagination of it, our minds don't really know the difference between that and real life. It can be very helpful.

 

[pbernardo]

My biggest piece of advice, which I have mentioned several times on these forums I'm sure, is to break up your practice. Marathons are not good in this case.

The way I practice is to do a move until I notice an improvement. Then do it a few more times to repeat that improvement, then move on to something else completely different for a while. As in, if I was practicing the Two Handed Shift from Erdnase - I worked on it for maybe 20 minutes until I was sure I had either improved or at least solidified something about it. Then I would switch to, say, a Second Deal. Totally different set of movements.

This allows the neural pathways in your brain (The physical cells and such that transmit information, ie: muscle memory) to form properly instead of muddying them up by practicing too long.

I also break every new thing down as much as possible. Step by step, movement by movement, finger position by finger position. When I am first learning it, I tear it apart and study what makes it work.

Once you've got the independent physical moves for a trick down, string them together and start practicing going from one to the next seamlessly, without thought. Once you're going through the physical movements with muscle memory, start doing the same thing but with your script spoken out loud.

Remember - practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent.

Another thing - You can visualize doing the moves and that will help as well. When we thoroughly imagine something, really putting ourselves into the imagination of it, our minds don't really know the difference between that and real life. It can be very helpful.

Your answer males total sense and looks like you have a real system there.

Thank you very much for your help. I really feel a very supportive community here.

 

[RealityOne]

When practicing moves that are designed to appear as something else (e.g. a side steal that looks like squaring the deck or a vanish of a coin that looks like placing the coin in your hand), start by doing the move it is supposed to look like and then by doing the "secret" move. This will make your performance better.

Another thing - You can visualize doing the moves and that will help as well. When we thoroughly imagine something, really putting ourselves into the imagination of it, our minds don't really know the difference between that and real life. It can be very helpful.

I've rehearsed full shows in my imagination. Correction... I performed full shows in my imagination.

Those that know my performance style, know that I often have detailed scripts so imagining the performance helps both with the sleights and the scripts.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

When practicing moves that are designed to appear as something else (e.g. a side steal that looks like squaring the deck or a vanish of a coin that looks like placing the coin in your hand), start by doing the move it is supposed to look like and then by doing the "secret" move. This will make your performance better.

Ah yes, excellent point.

Another thing which has recently become pretty relevant to me - remember to stretch your wrists periodically. Look up some of those recommended office stretches and do them. You do not want to deal with carpal tunnel syndrome so stay healthy.