Well, I created this thread for the purpose of asking all of the magicians :

How do you remember the tricks you have learnt?

I encountered alot of this problem. Sometimes when I practiced a certain trick for some time , I will forget the some of the older ones ( or at least, its will be abit vague to me ). Or, at least, the order of the trick (e.g should i do this first? or that?)

Hm...one of the reasons may be that I have a short-term memory, as seen from the amount of homework that I managed to hand in over my school years :off:

Nah, I was joking about the short- term memory bit, but not about the homework :P


Well, any suggestions? Do you all have some sort of a collection of magic stuff that are kept in a notebook somewhere?



Thanks for all the comments! :g:


P.S What was the question again? :P

Effects are just effects if you perform like the book. So eventually you will forget. Just like studying, if you study for the sake of exam, after exam, you will forget what you study. But if you study for the sake of exploring, you will find that you will apply the skill to else where, and you will remember it long time.

Same goes to magic, if you learn the magic, brainstorm, think of practical situations, apply them, sooner or later, you realise that you remember the tools better than you know it.

I always have a book with me for my shows or any things that I thought of. Like applying a certain theory into the effect, how much better can it get? Then from shows, what is the mistakes I made, what to look out for? etc.. There are many things you need to remember than just the effects. Which is far more important than the effects in the end.

I think you already have an answer. It's not going to be possible to remember what you've learned or worked on without writing them down somewhere.

It's a good idea to keep a notebook for a number of purposes like scribbling down ideas (half-baked or not), documenting your own progress over effects or sleights, scripting and a list of active repertoire, which you can then refer to and rehearse. You might find that this will help you better focus on your magic as well. In fact, you might even want to use a few notebooks for different purposes.

For example, say you've gone for an SMC meeting or meet fellow magicians where you got feedback about certain things. It'll be a good idea to jot them down once you get back home based on your memory. I usually try to do this and the times when I don't, I regret cause I try to recall something and I can't.

I got a book recently to jot down the stuff i want to buy and the effects i come up with. I realise I cannot remember certain of my innovations after awhile if I do not practise them or use them..

It is good to jot down you magic stuff because there is just so much to remember don't you think so? Like so many tricks, books and dvds to buy and so many effects you practise.

If you are afraid of it being seen by laypeople by accident, lock it away or better, write in codes so only magicians can understand or you yourself can understand.

I am not much of a person who do notes and jot down stuff but now I am getting myself to. Who knows you may publish your own material next time if you have really good creations.

I used to have this little booklet that i carry in my wallet. It shows all the tricks i know and i separate them into 'table' 'no table' and 'gimmicked' and i used to take it once in a while to go through the effects so that i know i cant perform all of them whenever i need to.

But my girlfriend found out and couldn't stop making fun of me. And i threw it away and never had one replaced. So nowadays i don't really remember the tricks i know.

But it's really good practice to write down the stuff that you think of and the stuff people share with you. Only that it's probably a difficult habit to pick up. Are you hardcore enough?


ZiAn

I think that the notebook idea is pretty good since it is portable. As for me, I am slightly more IT savy here. Just kidding. I keep my list of tricks in an Excel file. For which I would seperate them into category like impromptu, cards, coins etc. Once in awhile I will open the file to do an update whenever I learn new stuff. At the same time I will just run through my list .

Well, I think the recording purpose is just to jot down what you learnt before. You won't be performing every single trick you learnt before, I am pretty sure most of us noticed that. But it is definitely helpful to jot them down cause sometimes when you run through the list you might just find something really useful that you have neglected.

I think either way works fine. Notebook or excel.

Eh... actually I remember those that I actually paid good money for, really.

But yeah, like the rest, I keep a list in my PDA. Every now and then I would take a look and see if there is any good effects which I am ready to revisit.

Maybe you can do Mind-Mapping?