Practice and practice some more
 

Hey guys
I've been thinking about this for some time and how best to word the question, because as we all know, practice is essential if we want to better ourselves as magicians. Seeing as I'm not lucky enough to have a personal mentor, I have to dig around elsewhere for any hints, tips etc.

Personally, I think I practice a lot, or at least I used to until just recently - maybe 4 hours a day I'd be playing around with the deck. I focused mainly on moves and tried coming up with short routines. But then I discovered or I believed that although I was putting all this time in, I was actually making little improvement. Basically I don't think I'm getting any better, despite the practice.

I heard different magicians say different things on the best way to practice, and honestly I got a bit confused. For example, Helder once said the best way is in front of people. I can understand that this would be good for confidence building, but if you messed up you wouldn't have the knowledge or experience to get yourself out of it. I heard it's also beneficial to rehearse in front of mirror, which I often do, only I find myself relying on it too much and end up really rigid. David Roth says to only use the mirror for checking. Anyone understand what he means? I was watching the Ponta interview the other day on youtube, and he said something I quite liked which was he tends to strive for smoothness over accuracy.

A final thought: if anyone else is having this problem one solution might be to hook up live on skype or something to watch each other perform live. I'd be up for that. What do you think?

Anyway, I wonder if you guys could give me some insight into the different methods you use to practice. I look forward to reading your replies.
-Tom

I usually practice in front of a mirror, followed by video recordings from multiple angles (not aiming towards the camera but aiming towards where the spectator would stand, because else you get flawed, delusionary results).

Once you got down (just down, not mastered, probably not really smooth) whatever it is you practiced, smooth it out a little bit and then go out and perform. This way you will build it up to a level in which you fool anyone with it. Myself I strive to smoothness, accuracy and perfection as for both, but in the end all you need is to fool your spectators so there is no need to go that far.

I suppose David Roth meant that he practices without any mirror and then once he got it down, he checks in it in mirror to see whether it's good enough and to check the angles. I find myself doing that every now and then too. I suppose no magician is always having a mirror with him so yeah..

practice for me is doing the same move at least 10 times over, and then either continue or rest for a little bit to let it sink in, after 4-5 sessions like that i usually will get the movement of the move and able to do it slowly, i will then smooth it out, remove any unnecessary movements and check it in front of a mirror every now and then, i usually don't ever stop practicing tho... every once in a while i'll remember the move/effect, and try to do it again.

The way I practice is the way jugglers teach anything. I do the move a few times to warm up, and then I break down every little detail of every aspect of what is happening, so like left/right hand positions/movement/actions, the magic object and its destinations/actions/manipulation points, and everything else that your awareness can key in to.

and as the juggler says, "everything else is on you"

some people say that you should video yourself but i dont think thats needed. the golden rule is "if you try anything long enough then u will get it"

That is, unless you keep doing it wrong because you never checked what you are doing actually looked right :eek: :p

From my experience this is a great way to develop bad habits and major flash-points. You may "get it" after trying at something for long enough, but card magic is not just anything - it is a fine art. There are people who can do passes, and people who can do them well! The difference is not necessarily who practised for the longest, but HOW they practised. Did they analyse what they were doing and refine it, or did they just repeat and repeat and repeat and hope for perfection? The latter will never get very far.

^ with fin

Ok my best way is putting a webcam at eye level and doing a move while watching whats going on from the back and from the front. A mirror is good but its not as good as a video camera because when you practice in front of a mirror you have to get really close to it because the distance is doubled when looking at a mirror. The best way is to study strait on one move until you almost have it then switch to another move and study strait on it. always practice all moves and a tip is you need to be critical to yourself. Act like your audience is def and your trying to do magic. Your hands are the things doing the talking.

Why don't you do all at the same? Practice session for some hours while recording you, then check it in the tape and in front of the mirror, if you think you're doing it right, put yourself in danger and perform it for real people (if it's people you're confident of, better) then you have this: How it should look, how it looks when you do it, also you have spectator point of view. You're done, go practice; if you have any doubt about what i said (english is not my main language) contact me on skype.