talkmagic.co.uk

Hawk wrote:Learning Magic From site is certainly not acceptable, this is being stopped becuase many magicnas feel this is a throaway, its ok to sell not to give away., try books not only dose it make your mind work by reading, your alos learning at the same time.

your right! thats how i have learned all my magic and it's the best way!

There is no end-all BEST WAY - some methods of learning are better than others to specific people.

You need to look at what works for you.

Some people can learn from books, while others may need more visual guides to figure certain things out. Each format has benefits and drawbacks.

Books force you to really put your mind into the cards, to figure out how to translate the moves to your own hands - how to get the deck to a certain position, fingers in a certain way. Not only does it give you technique, but they allow you the freedom to adapt what you've READ into something that suits your natural gestures and style.

DVD's are better in some ways. I've seen written explanations that are complete trash. A DVD of the same move is instantly understandable. You SEE what you're supposed to be doing. You can rewind, pause, go slow. It's the ultimate visual learning tool. The major drawback from dvd's though, is that it sometimes breeds a degree of laziness. You learn the move...the way the instructor does it. Therefore, many people tend to just copy the moves and do it that one way. This isn't necessarily a BAD thing, but it hinders your creativity in both handling and style.

So there you have it. As you've already seen - there are huge arguments over this topic. Neither side is right, but neither side is completely wrong. You need to find out what works best for you, and try to find a middle ground.

If I had to choose - I'd say use both equally. Learn from every available resource you can get your hands on.

I'm in the book camp most of the time but must add that Oz Pearlman's 'Born To Perform' and other DVD material is excellent.

I use both mediums to learn and think of course that the best way of learning is still on a one-to-one basis.

Can I re-iterate that joining a club, learning from and showing to one's peers is the absolutely best way of doing it.

Magic is not a hobby to be learnt and perfomed in darkened rooms alone, it is to be enjoyed, shared and developed in the company of others,

Vic

hi!

im 17 to, i watched a guy at are library doing magic and i talked to him, he told me a few books that will help you out and stuff and so far im doing good!

one book is by "bill tarr" called "now you see it, now you don't", another one that has some good tricks in it is "magic for dummies", both books are very easy to learn from.

good luck!