Why most people give up trying to learn how to do magic with sleight of hand.
I recorded this short video about the most common reasons what most people tend to give up trying to master sleight of hand. I've worked with a great deal of magic students over the years, and the same reason springs up every time. The magic secret is that it's easy to get past this phase, as long as you realise that you have falled foul of this way of thinking about your magic and your ability to master it.
So many people begin new hobbies every day. The vast majority give up in the first few months. That's quite normal, as the pleasure of the new wears off. Some pople push past this and their abilities suddenly shoot up as they reach the turning point of their learning curve. It's all about sticking with it and not judging yourself too much. It's not a race or competition. Learning magic is a slow gradual process that builds up over time.
I'd love to hear about your experiences learning sleight of hand. Did you find the process easy? Way it hard for you. How did you motivate yourself to keep going? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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I found the card sleight of hand course you sell and the support that came with it was very good at getting me started with card sleight of hand. I am getting proficient at the Elmsley Count, not so good at the Cull as I find less tricks to use it in, but I failed with the master push off and really can’t make it work. I have talked to other magicians who have had the same difficulty with the push off. I have since bought the Double Lift Project and hope that I will, following your advice about how to practice, develop a good double lift.
I would love to see a similar course developed for other magic such as coins or balls..
I agree Richard it’s not so much as it is really hard to do the Elmsley count but it is so difficult to stop the little shows that happen when doing the push offs. I recently purchased “Shock Twist” from MoM and it is a really good little trick that is effective but controlling the cards efficiently is my problem. Mind you I am a novice when it comes to learning the Magic and it does not help that I started late in life (just before my 65th) so dexterity is another problem but soldier on I must for I will not let it get the better of me, I see the kids doing this stuff on the internet so I will not be beaten by a ten year old regards Ray D (raythe useless)
This is a fine word of encouragement to those undertaking to study sleight-of-hand magic. One thing to keep in mind is that one must learn to realistically scale one’s ambitions. As an example, one intending to learn card magic would not do well to begin by learning the Classic Pass. Another vitally important thing to understand is that, as Michael Ammar has pointed out, practice DOES NOT make perfect; practice makes PERMANENT. Practising the wrong method for doing a sleight will only ingrain bad habits that will take even more effort to unlearn later. As much as I love old books, a lot of these were pretty poor at actually TEACHING sleights. One I’ll never forget is the One-Hand Top Palm from Hugard’s _Card Manipulations_. I came to much grief trying to learn it from that abominable description. It was only when I read _Expert Card Technique_ that I finally got the proper method.
Incidentally, I’d like to raise a heartfelt salute to Merchant of Magic: I don’t think I’ve ever seen another outfit as passionately dedicated to education as it is to moving product
Good job, guys!