Here are a few of the concepts I have played with during my last couple of months journey with coins. I would love to hear others` tips since any help is always welcome.

[]-Coin Size Matters:

-Small coins make larger coins seem huge and vice versa. Use this fact when a given coin size seems impossible to work with.

-Big coins thunk into your palm when tossed. Keep this in mind during transfers and vanishes. Wouldn't want a penny to sound like an elephant. The sound can be simulated (if desired) by slapping the palm of the closing fist (which is supposedly receiving coin) with the forefinger of the retreating hand that apparently just dropped the coin (the other fingers are actually busy palming it)

-When a big coin becomes too heavy and cumbersome, causing your hand to cramp, it is time to switch to a smaller coin. The new coin will feel like a cloud in your hands and your mind will be reactivated by the change. Work your way down to your smallest coin, then switch hands and work your way up to your largest coin before switching back to the previously cramped hand. This gives it plenty of down-time; there should be no complaints.

-Big coins cast shadows, small ones don't. Particularly important in certain instances. (e.g. coin is Downs palmed and a light is above and behind the hand. A silhouette of the coin is shaded onto the palm. Not good (perceptible to viewer) if the position is going to be less then fleeting.

[]-Practice While You Sleep:

-Seriously, I think we all know the value of studying something intently until sleep overtakes. Your mind continues to process as your body re-energizes. This concept can be applied to any field and in many ways.

-Magic in bed can be quite entertaining. While wife is laying on your upper arm (both parties on back) run through your moves with your now constricted arm. This allows her to critique your style from nearly the same perspective as you (think of it as extreme close up). When she tires of this and falls asleep (she will eventually) continue to practice. This all serves to train your arm and hand to stay within a tight box. This seems preferable to vastly over-exaggerated flailings and waves which only seem to nauseate the close-up audience.

-Sleep-Palming is real! Try moving in and out of a back palm continuously until you fall asleep. Immediately wake partially up and place the coin in a palmed (which ever you wish to practice that night) position while drifting back to sleep. Alternatively you can just start with the coin in the desired palm position and just fall asleep. While sleeping, wake back up whenever you drop the coin. This might seem impossible, but it's really not that hard to accomplish and shouldn't affect your sleep routine too much. The benefits seem to be valid. Your hand quickly becomes used to unconsciously holding a coin.

[]-Misc:

-Keep coins handy, try to always hold one whenever possible. This seems obvious, but sometimes the mind is not interested and so time is wasted. Is there a coin in your hand right now? There should be, surfing the net is the perfect time to practice with your off-hand.

-When a coin is dropped, close your eyes and follow it by sound and then locate it by feel. The real magic happens when it isn't where you think it should be.

-Practice vanishes in a darkened room over a candle with a mirror opposite. When you perform a sleight automatically the thinking part of your brain shuts down and you can proceed to amaze yourself. Plus the flicker of the candle really makes the coin flash which assists in your quest to hide it.

-Make a rhythm out of your practice routines. This helps you to do them without thinking and allows for many more repetitions then would otherwise be possible.

-Practice in crazy slow motion. As slow as you can go. Get the moves right. Learn where you can pause, where you can hold, where you must move with rapid leisure.

-Practice underwater (bucket, tub, jacuzzi, pool etc.) but be sure to stop before your hands wrinkle. This changes the dynamics in odd ways. Heavy coins 'float' through their motions and your fingers gain a nimbleness you never knew you had.

-Get about $5 in coins and find a bridge (cliff, sewer grate etc.) now practice your hardest moves. It really makes you concentrate. Like tight-rope walking or something. It sucks to lose money and you become quite careful.

Anyways, those are just some thoughts...hope they aren't irksome to others. After all, a big part of magic is about having fun. Enjoy!

Nice Really nice tips Thank you for posting

"-Magic in bed can be quite entertaining. While wife is laying on your upper arm (both parties on back) run through your moves with your now constricted arm. This allows her to critique your style from nearly the same perspective as you (think of it as extreme close up). When she tires of this and falls asleep (she will eventually) continue to practice. This all serves to train your arm and hand to stay within a tight box. This seems preferable to vastly over-exaggerated flailings and waves which only seem to nauseate the close-up audience."

Depending on how long you have been married will determine what the percentage of wanting to practicing coin sleights as compared to other activities. Said with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Bob Phillips

Very Nice!

I wrote some tips in an old thread in 2005, take a look.
You might find it useful.

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/searc......=4049522

Angel1998, thanks for the encouragement, I was leary posting tips since I am so new to coin manipulation.

Bobn3, haha, you hit the nail on the head. If one wasn't aware that paragraph was about coin magic than the double entendre might trap them. Magic in bed...Run through your moves...Critque your style...Tight Box...Flailing...wtf?!?...LoL

Rindfleisch, great advice on the classic palm etc. I archived the page locally for reference (hope you don't mind) The part about dropping a coin in your wife's held hand was hilarious.

I love your Small Coin Big coin statements, This is so true. Quarters used to seem big to me, then I got a Kennedy half - not too much bigger, then some Ike Dollars. I practiced with the Ike's for about a week and now even the Kennedy seems small, not to mention the quarter - it seems like a penny now. LOL

RoadKillRon, I know what you mean, haha. I have a lot of trouble back-palming a Kennedy half because it seems too small and then I try it with a quarter and suddenly the half seems huge when I return to it.

Wow, those tips are really going to help, thank you Nick. I really like a lot of the misc. ones, because I find that practicing in regular conditions for a long time is tiresome and I get bored. Then the feeling ofbeing bored comes over the next time I sit to do some coin practice, so mixing it up with your suggestions are going to be great. I work in a bookstore where there is a lot of mirrors for the clothing that we sell, so I like using different mirrors while at work to do a quick sleight here, or a palm there, or a piece of a routine here. Makes it interesting, practice is all about repetition but repetition under different circumstances. All in all nice post!

Glad the tips are of use. Just keep in mind that these are just thoughts from a beginner. No kidding. I don't want to lead anybody astray or pretend I'm something I'm not. It might not be accelerated learning, but it's working for me.

When I started breaking everything down into countable rhythms it really helped me with those times I don't feel like practicing. If I can just get the coin into my hand then the practiced cadence will begin and my hand will go through it's motion on it's own accord. The only problem I see with this technique is there is a possiblity of putting many repetitions towards learning the move wrong. You would then have unlearn the bad habit.

You're lucky to work where you do. Books are my addiction and the full length mirrors would be handy.

Also try sleeping with a coin classic palmed in both hands I have slept for a few hours before and woke with them still palmed.

Nick, Magicians often do sleights on the "off beat". If you're musical and realize the total move is done in 3 beats, you may want to count, "1, 2 and 3", the sleight performed on the "and". I have found practicing while counting this way gives you consistentcy and smooths things out.

Another interesting thing is how some moves may be done in 3 beats, some in 4. You want to determine how this works in a routine. For example when vanishing a coin. I do Rubinstein's TP Vanish in 3 beats (1, 2 and 3). I do Schneider' CP Vanish in 4 beats (1, 2, 3 and 4). You can see how this could change the flow in a routine.

I happen to practice this way with coin(s) in hand, two times natural without sleight then once with sleight.

Atom,

That's perfect. 1, 2 and 3...

I was trying '1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and' as well a various mixes of quarter and whole notes but your advice to slip the sleight into the offbeat was just the sort of gem I was looking for.

I'll have try a coin in both hands, PoofDaddy, I've only been using one.

sincerely,
Nick

Nick, There are studies that strongly indicate learning a sleight with your NON-dominant hand makes it EASIER to learn that sleight with your dominant hand! Café contributor funsway has studied this idea thoroughly.

I happen to use DVDs to help learn. I got tired of figuring out the mirror image reversal to do my sleights, so just copied directly. Yes, I learned a lot of routines with my left hand as the dominant hand (I'm a "righty"), but also discovered MANY coin magicians are left-handed: including Eric Jones, Mike Gallo and David Neighbors. No mirror image translation needed!

That's good news...I'm right-handed but since all of my magic reference material is electronic, my right hand is usually on the mouse and coin in left. I do switch to my right hand when left cramps but it is far behind.

Your comment about some of the really good coin-manipulators using left-hand got me thinking about the whole right/left hemisphere brain issue...interesting.

How are the beats registered? That is, what constitutes a beat? Movement, peak tension, etc. I feel like I should explore this, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to apply the beats. (For context, I'm a beginner, as in, a couple of months.)

Over a sewer grate might be good once you have got things under control (except maybe for the smell) but I have tended to do the opposite when I am still in the serious dropping stage. I drill a small hole in the coin and tie fishing line to the coin leaving about 3' of line which I tie to my belt. I get a lot more practice time if I don't spend half of it picking up the coin...

Hey...I like that idea...<pulls out drill and gets to work>

I forgot to mention the tip that has helped me the most. Visit these forums. The members are all very nice and everybody is so helpful. If a person is serious about learning then there couldn't be a better resource.

DavidD, to create the beats I just do something like this: (using into and out of down's palm, traditional manner as an example)

-Beat 1: Hold coin clipped between forefingers

-Beat 2: Tilt coin to display

-Beat 3: Tilt coin back to start position

-the 'and' Beat: Do the sleight, slip the coin into DP.

-Beat 4: Return fingers to start position, they are now empty.

The count for the above sounds like: 1,2,3 and 4

sincerely,
Nick

David, I studied Michael Rubinstein's Encyclopedia OF Coin Magic DVDs. Doc actually gives you a count for some sleights. But for most, I learned a sleight and through my own handling figured out how many beats per sleight made sense. After all, YOU are doing the handling; it's what makes sense for YOU!

Thanks! I thought the answer might be to "feel your way through it," but I wanted to check. I'll try to pay attention to rhythm as I try to practice.

David, You might want to know Slydini used a metronome and taught his students to use a metronome when learning routines!; IIRC using 76 per beat. Eric Jones has also mentioned using a metronome.