# Ideas - How to 'practice' memorization?



## MrSpike (Aug 24, 2011)

Now before I annoy anyone this is not a thread about "what method should I choose?" I would like to gather peoples ideas on how to actually practice memorization. Primarily with visual and tapping for corners and lettered edges with stories. Now I find it difficult to break into new cycles and actually maintain the letters or taps as I do so. What I want to know is "what's your story" maybe not literally in terms of bld solves. More as in, how did you practice bld untill you could do memo? 
What were your steps and what is your advice?

I hope this can help me and many other bld newbs.

P.s. is it worth going from old pochmann edges to M2 even though I can't memo? 
I can do old poch just fine but was wondering if M2 would be any nicer on cycles?

Thank you all, looking forward to responses.


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## tozies24 (Aug 24, 2011)

I am struggling with the same thing. I want to be able to solve blind, but my memorization method is just crap. I haven't really tried to do it much the past couple weeks, but I have been doing a couple open eyes solves with old pochmann because I want to keep remembering it. I have done maybe 10 blind attempts and I have gotten only 2 that were actually really close.


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## cmhardw (Aug 24, 2011)

The best way to practice memorization, in my opinion, is to fail at memorizing.

Let me explain.

I view the brain's ability to improve as very similar to building muscle strength. To increase muscle mass, you have to work your muscles to the point of failure, causing small tearing, which heals back as increased muscle mass (I might have the specifics wrong, especially for you biology folks, but the basic idea is this if I'm not mistaken). To improve your memorization ability, you have to continually push yourself to the point of failure.

Some concrete examples of how to do this:
1) If you ever memorize then put on the blindfold and you've forgotten the entire memorization, then do the following: Sit there, blindfold on, until you remember it. I don't care if you have to sit there for 30 minutes or more. MAKE yourself remember what the memo was. It's in your head, but you have to allow yourself to be pushed beyond your point of failure to remember it, and force yourself to dig deep and find it.

2) Push yourself to the point of mental exhaustion. When you first begin BLD solving, only 1 or 2 solves per day are necessary to push yourself to the point where you feel mentally tired. This is pushing yourself to a kind of mental failure, and that's a good thing. Whenever practicing BLD, you don't improve unless you push yourself to a point of mental failure. If 1-2 solves are enough to make you feel mentally exhausted, then do 3 solves per day. If 5-10 solves are enough to push you to the point of mental exhaustion, then do 11-12 solves per day. Often the solves you do while mentally exhausted will result in memory recall delays or errors. Refer to #1 for these kinds of solves.

3) Once you get better at BLD solving, and have a decent accuracy and you're solving in under 10 minutes every successful solve, then begin to push yourself to memorize just a little more quickly than you feel comfortable. You know your mind, and you know how many times you have to rehearse something to memorize it. Say it takes you 4 repetitions of trying to memorize something to have it down solid. If that's the case, then when doing a solve only rehearse things 3 times.

Basically, always push yourself to the point of failure (and push as far into the "failure" zone as you can each time). This is how to improve your ability to memorize. Failure in BLD is a GREAT thing - it's the source of your improvement. This is why any practice in BLD is good practice.


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## caseyd (Aug 24, 2011)

I'm trying a spin on the PAO system, using people I know , the planets, and actions with certain letters to mean numbers which correspon to pieces, I use pochman, have 5 attempts and 1 succes with this method of memo


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## RNewms27 (Aug 24, 2011)

I did each step separately to know i can get each part down. With Old Pochmann I just tap the cubie, including the correct sticker for its orientation, and memorize the sticker i tapped and think about nothing else other than the order of my taps. (usually i visualize myself tapping a certain piece)


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## Erdos (Aug 24, 2011)

Try practicing by components and improving each part, especially if you're a beginner. After all, a slow execution demands an even slower memo as you're forced to retain your memo for that much longer. In other words, how good would an audio loop or lettering scheme be if you're still struggling on specific cases for your solve?


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## MrSpike (Aug 24, 2011)

Some great suggestions here! This is all good. I have to say the post from cmhardw is very useful. I think the failure zone technique will be really effective!


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## tx789 (Aug 24, 2011)

Just doing it will help my very few attempts (3) two solves a full. I memo egdes once and then started solved the second is just edges cause a had to stop my last was a full solve with no pieces solved


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## DaKrazedKyubizt (Jan 24, 2012)

Has anyone tried musical memorization? Like, denoting a certain note for each piece? I'm questioning whether or not this might make BLD solving easier for me because I remember music a lot better than I remember a bunch of letters/numbers/positions.

I couldn't specify an exact note for each piece without a some practice hearing the notes in my head, but I could definitely just pick notes on any scale, at the least, like for corners, I could designate corners 1-8 as all the notes in a scale. Or maybe I could even designate each sticker as a note.

So, yeah, has anyone tried this? This might be a fresh way to do stuff, and I certainly don't mind adventuring the capabilities of my mind which are mountains and valleys and rivers and seas...

EDIT: Oh lol, I don't even think this is the right thread... but eh, what's done is done...


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## gbcuber (Jan 25, 2012)

DaKrazedKyubizt said:


> Has anyone tried musical memorization? Like, denoting a certain note for each piece? I'm questioning whether or not this might make BLD solving easier for me because I remember music a lot better than I remember a bunch of letters/numbers/positions.
> 
> I couldn't specify an exact note for each piece without a some practice hearing the notes in my head, but I could definitely just pick notes on any scale, at the least, like for corners, I could designate corners 1-8 as all the notes in a scale. Or maybe I could even designate each sticker as a note.
> 
> ...



This is really strange, I was thinking of doing the exact same thing just last week. I think it's a perfectly good idea, especially if you understand music really well.


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## DaKrazedKyubizt (Jan 25, 2012)

gbcuber said:


> This is really strange, I was thinking of doing the exact same thing just last week. I think it's a perfectly good idea, especially if you understand music really well.



I'll try it out until I get a successful solve if you do the same! 

But should we come up with our own way to designate the stickers/pieces? Because, now that I think about it, I'm terrible at memorizing positions, so it would probably make more sense for me to designate each sticker with one note, but that might be a little too annoying. 

Oh, lol, really funny image just popped up in my head. This would definitely not be allowed, but what if I was doing a BLD solve at competition, and then all of the sudden, when I start solving, I also start singing the notes opera style to help me follow my path. Not only would it be illogically-composed and totally formless music, but it would also be freakin' hilarious.


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## gbcuber (Jan 25, 2012)

DaKrazedKyubizt said:


> I'll try it out until I get a successful solve if you do the same!
> 
> But should we come up with our own way to designate the stickers/pieces? Because, now that I think about it, I'm terrible at memorizing positions, so it would probably make more sense for me to designate each sticker with one note, but that might be a little too annoying.
> 
> Oh, lol, really funny image just popped up in my head. This would definitely not be allowed, but what if I was doing a BLD solve at competition, and then all of the sudden, when I start solving, I also start singing the notes opera style to help me follow my path. Not only would it be illogically-composed and totally formless music, but it would also be freakin' hilarious.


 
I don't know if it would work for me, I might try it. An idea however, would be to use sharps, flats and naturals to distinguish the orientation or something like that.


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## Mike Hughey (Jan 25, 2012)

The idea of using notes for memorization has been suggested on other threads here before (although I don't know exactly where). As I recall, the few people who have tried it have not found it to be very effective. But I doubt it's been tried many times, so by all means experiment with it - maybe you'll find a way to do it that really works.


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## DaKrazedKyubizt (Jan 25, 2012)

gbcuber said:


> I don't know if it would work for me, I might try it. An idea however, would be to use sharps, flats and naturals to distinguish the orientation or something like that.


 

Now THAT'S an idea!!


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## Carson (Jan 26, 2012)

Notes may be an issue. Counting half steps, there are only 13 pitches if you do only one octave of the chromatic scale. Chromatic would be very difficult as opposed to doing a major scale, although you would then have only 8 pitches to work with. For corners, perhaps each piece could represent a pitch, and the orientation of the piece could represent the rhythm for that pitch. While very cool... I think this would be difficult. The awesome thing though, is that you could then "perform" your bld solve.


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## evogler (Feb 2, 2012)

Lol... Anyone who could memorize random pitches that quickly should be spending their time playing music!


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## DrKorbin (Feb 8, 2012)

That's the way to compose music: just scramble the cube and try to memorize it 
If you take 2 chromatic octaves then there are 24 notes and it is enough to memorize stickers on both corners and edges. However you must have an absolute pitch.
Another idea: you memorize intervals, i.e. two notes that sound simultaneously. So you can take just 8 notes and 3 types of intervals (a tonic, a third, a fifth or something), and that's also enough for 24 stickers.


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## DaKrazedKyubizt (Feb 8, 2012)

evogler said:


> Lol... Anyone who could memorize random pitches that quickly should be spending their time playing music!



I sing! I've always had very accurate ears. XD 



DrKorbin said:


> That's the way to compose music: just scramble the cube and try to memorize it
> If you take 2 chromatic octaves then there are 24 notes and it is enough to memorize stickers on both corners and edges. However you must have an absolute pitch.
> Another idea: you memorize intervals, i.e. two notes that sound simultaneously. So you can take just 8 notes and 3 types of intervals (a tonic, a third, a fifth or something), and that's also enough for 24 stickers.



This is a very good idea. I need to set a date to try this out so that I don't procrastinate and try to just pass it off.


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## drewsopchak (Feb 27, 2012)

evogler said:


> Lol... Anyone who could memorize random pitches that quickly should be spending their time playing music!


 
Quit cubing, go on tour, retire at 35 and live on a remote Mediterranean island.


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## jeffjc (Mar 10, 2012)

For corner permutation, we can have the cycle repeated over and over again (cycle)
ie corner (135) would be C-E-G-C-E-G (or do-mi-so-do-mi-so)

In my head, I'm hearing this really quickly over and over again, about two times per second. Not easy to forget.


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## Guitarcam96 (Apr 7, 2012)

DaKrazedKyubizt said:


> Has anyone tried musical memorization? Like, denoting a certain note for each piece? I'm questioning whether or not this might make BLD solving easier for me because I remember music a lot better than I remember a bunch of letters/numbers/positions.
> 
> I couldn't specify an exact note for each piece without a some practice hearing the notes in my head, but I could definitely just pick notes on any scale, at the least, like for corners, I could designate corners 1-8 as all the notes in a scale. Or maybe I could even designate each sticker as a note.
> 
> ...


 This is genius!!!!!! Being a well rounded musician, this will make things a billion times easier!


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## fastcubesolver (Apr 11, 2012)

I might try music for corners. I use visual memo, and it works very well for me, but sometimes corners are a bit rough. What do you guys think about changing memo methods for each solve, depending on the solve?


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## Zane_C (Apr 12, 2012)

fastcubesolver said:


> I might try music for corners. I use visual memo, and it works very well for me, but sometimes corners are a bit rough. What do you guys think about changing memo methods for each solve, depending on the solve?


Alternating between memo methods can certainly help in some circumstances, so you should give it a shot. 
A while ago (mid-late 2010) I used to memo the first 4 or so edges visually, when patterns became too difficult to remember I would switch to audio.


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