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glowball Special user Nashville TN 937 Posts |
Cube26 (Harpo) System better than Black Shadow System for Harding stack and shuffled stacks
On another thread I proposed the Black Shadow method with a Rubik's Cube to memorize the sequence of the Harding stack so a magician can easily know the "next card". IMO the Harding Stack is great for knowing the position of any card but is poor at knowing the "next card". The Cube26 system and the Black Shadow system both use an imaginary Rubik's Cube as the mental palace but they work entirely differently. They both will work to reconstruct a deck that has been shuffled, however I now believe that the Cube26 system is easier than Black Shadow. Note: I originally called this Cube26 system the Harpo system, but since the term Harpo is copyrighted and the term Rubik's is copyrighted, just to be totally safe I am no longer using the term Harpo so now I use the term Cube26 for this "P,A" Dominic O'Brien type system that uses just three faces of a cube where each face has nine squares to be utilized (giving 27 little squares, but the 27th square is not used). For the Cube26 method you have to put in a little more upfront memorization of human names and actions to associate with individual cards, but at performance time the Cube26 system is much easier for me to remember than the Black Shadow system. Currently I use three different stacks from time to time: Hamilton, Aronson, DSHoCk Harding. I have flat-out memorized the Hamilton stack and the Aronson stack but not the DSHoCk Harding stack (these three stacks all pass a random looking test, especially the first two stacks). I use a running mnemonic story on the Cube26 in order to put together the DSHoCk Harding stack from memory and to be able to do "next card" tricks with the DSHoCk Harding stack. I also use the mathematical tetradistic Golfer King stack occasionally, but I'm finding the memorized methods to be easier at performance time. My memorization method preferences: 1. Position number written in a unique way on the face of each card on a practice deck. 2. Each card gets a human name and a mnemonic associated position number. 3. The Cube26 method. For the Hamilton stack I initially used only method 1 above (position number written in a unique way on the face of each card). To memorize any stack I believe the above three methods will work well (there are other methods). The main difference between method 2 above and method 3 (Cube26) is that method 2 does not have a memory palace nor an action word, method 2 is just memorizing a name and a number together whereas method 3 (Cube26) can have multiple cubes of different color tints to mentally hold on to different stacks. Also method 2 when doing "next card" determination you must think "what number is next" (this is a minor issue) whereas method 3 (Cube26) you just proceed to the next card via the action word mnemonic story. To do positional type tricks: method 1 and method 2 are easier than method 3. To do positional type tricks using method 3 (Cube26) you must memorize the little square number as part of the mnemonic story of the action word on each square and then multiply by two to get the actual position in the stack (If the one through 52 number is odd then subtract 1 from the multiplied by two result). For the Harding stack I believe that basic method 3 (Cube26), without memorizing the little square numbers, is the perfect solution (minimal amount of extra memorization). IE: you use the built-in Harding algorithm to do positional tricks, but you use the basic Cube26 method to do "next card"tricks. IMO the Black Shadow method has few and simple names so it is easy to get started but it has too many similar words and colors in the mnemonic stories which can cause confusion therefore I will take Cube26 over Black Shadow. |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Shuffled not Stirred » » Cube26 (Harpo) System better than Black Shadow System for Harding stack and shuffled stacks (0 Likes) |
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