# Noah's Blindfolded Tutorial



## Noahaha (Mar 13, 2013)

Hey Guys! The five parts of my new 3BLD tutorial will be coming out over the next five Wednesdays on the Cubing World channel. My goal with this tutorial is to provide people with a strong base in memorization that can take them to sub-2 without having to change any techniques. I hope this gets more people interested in blindsolving, because it's not very difficult but very fun and satisfying. Enjoy!

I have reorganized the tutorial entirely and uploaded the new second video. I think it's a lot better.



Spoiler: Part 1



[youtubehd]cRaf-dvamTE[/youtubehd]





Spoiler: Part 2



[youtubehd]JJWl-FDetWE[/youtubehd]





Spoiler: Part 3



[youtubehd]o49SnZhr2oM[/youtubehd]





Spoiler: Part 4



[youtubehd]wAbY66g-oNU[/youtubehd]





Spoiler: Part 5



[youtubehd]y32L_eLUong[/youtubehd]


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## moralsh (Mar 13, 2013)

I'm gonna give you half the million thanks before watching the video and the other half later 

Edit: Just watched it. People, watch it, Noah does CFOP there!

Thanks for focusing on memorization, I feel is my weak spot as most of my DNFs are like "where were I"


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## omer (Mar 13, 2013)

Just finished watching it, it's great. It's nice watching someone talk about the same color and lettering scheme as I use 

The trick at 10:00 is something that I also used as a beginner and I use it to teach my friends.


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## immortalchaos29 (Mar 13, 2013)

Oh my gosh I'm so excited to watch this right now. Thanks in advance for making this!


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## randomtypos (Mar 13, 2013)

Super excited.

I totally agree about your thing about memo. I've been BLDing for some months now and I still feel very disorganized when I memorize. I look forward to learning from your videos.


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## kunparekh18 (Mar 14, 2013)

Great! I am looking forward to learning from this.


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## Gordon (Mar 14, 2013)

Every time I see a tutorial from you I want to start with BLD again. 

Thanks for the good vid!
Can't wait for the next part.


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## cxinlee (Mar 14, 2013)

Very nice. Looking forward to the next video! I'm still trying to learn BLD though.


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## Crowned xerxes (Mar 14, 2013)

I don't think you should wait a week per episode. I wanna learn how to do it now.


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## Noahaha (Mar 14, 2013)

Crowned xerxes said:


> I don't think you should wait a week per episode. I wanna learn how to do it now.



Sorry about this. That is how series work on Cubing World. It would not be fair to the subscribers who aren't interested in BLD to have a whole bunch of BLD videos in a row. I think that each video will give people enough things to practice so that they don't have nothing to do until the next one comes out.


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## redbeat0222 (Mar 15, 2013)

Nicely done! Can't wait for the memo.


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## omer (Mar 15, 2013)

Crowned xerxes said:


> I don't think you should wait a week per episode. I wanna learn how to do it now.


You could practice the color and lettering scheme until then, here's 2 ways you could practice:
1) Scramble the cube, look at the DF sticker of the DF edge. Use Noahaha's explanation to name the letter of that sticker and try to see where it needs to go. Where it needs to go there will be another sticker on another edge. Do the same thing to that edge and repeat until you stumble upon the DF edge (in this video's color scheme it will be red-green), at this point just scramble the cube again. This is good practice before you learn M2 (this tutorial's edge solving method) where you need to do something similar while memorizing.
Do the same thing with the corners using the UBL sticker on the UBL corner.

2) Take you cube apart, mix up the pieces, take one random piece and pick a random sticker. Try to name the letter of that sticker as fast as you can. This is an important skill you'll need later to get faster.


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## arvind1999 (Mar 15, 2013)

Foinally! 
A video that concentrates on memo too! :')


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## DavidCubie (Mar 15, 2013)

Thanks Noah, I'll check it out!
1st part is just introduction or tutorial?


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## arvind1999 (Mar 15, 2013)

DavidCubie said:


> Thanks Noah, I'll check it out!
> 1st part is just introduction or tutorial?



Introduction mostly. There's color scheme and orientation in it.


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## mati1242 (Mar 15, 2013)

I hope that I will finally learn BLD after this tutorials ^^


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## DavidCubie (Mar 15, 2013)

arvind1999 said:


> Introduction mostly. There's color scheme and orientation in it.



Ty for reply, i just can't wait 2nd part.
I already watched badmephisto's tutorial but i didn't learned.


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## JianhanC (Mar 15, 2013)

Been very inconsistent for a long time already, this series of tutorials seem very promising! Can't wait.


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## Jaycee (Mar 18, 2013)

I already know the basics of BLD and I can do sub3 minute solves pretty consistently. I'm looking forward to the complete tutorial to help me improve


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## etshy (Mar 18, 2013)

Jaycee said:


> I already know the basics of BLD and I can do sub3 minute solves pretty consistently. I'm looking forward to the complete tutorial to help me improve



how long did it take you to be a sub 3 ? I started bld a month ago and I avergae 5 mins using M2/OP :/ 
also what memory method do you use ?


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## sneaklyfox (Mar 18, 2013)

Gordon said:


> Every time I see a tutorial from you I want to start with BLD again.
> 
> Thanks for the good vid!
> Can't wait for the next part.



^This is me too. I admit I'm not very interested in BLD solving. I've had two successes so far... out of maybe 4 attempts. You said you can help anyone get sub-2. How many practices do you estimate it would take to get sub-2? Obviously, just watching the series isn't going to make that happen.

I'm also rather curious about lettering scheme. I wonder if Speffz is actually better than the one I made up for myself because the same letters are going to be on the same faces whether they are corners or edges and they will always be right next to each other so maybe it makes more sense than what I was using before.


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## randomtypos (Mar 18, 2013)

sneaklyfox said:


> How many practices do you estimate it would take to get sub-2? Obviously, just watching the series isn't going to make that happen.
> 
> I'm also rather curious about lettering scheme. I wonder if Speffz is actually better than the one I made up for myself



Personally I picked up a Rubik's cube for the first time last November in 2012 and got into BLD in December (really fast, I know) even when I only averaged 40~secs TH. I now average 18 secs TH and 1:25 3BLD. I learned BLD from Noah. I would say that BLD isn't as difficult as it's made out to be. I feel like being *organized during memorization* is the biggest key to becoming sub-2, which is what I anticipate Noah will focus on. Most tutorials on Youtube focus on the exe part of BLD, which, IMO, is very easy, except for understanding commutators. Anyone who already knows the Y perm PLL can learn to exe corners easily and anyone can probably learn M2 in a couple hours. I sort of figured out how to memorize through trial and error, but memorizing in pairs and deciding whether you like audio words or audio loops is very important to decide on early. For me, by January I was at 3:30/1:30, by mid Jan 2:00/1:00. From 3:00 I would say that it takes a monthish of consistent practice to get sub-2.

On the letter scheme, I would say that anything that is personalized to you is what is best. Hope this helps.


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## JianhanC (Mar 20, 2013)

sneaklyfox said:


> ^This is me too. I admit I'm not very interested in BLD solving. I've had two successes so far... out of maybe 4 attempts. You said you can help anyone get sub-2. How many practices do you estimate it would take to get sub-2? Obviously, just watching the series isn't going to make that happen.
> 
> I'm also rather curious about lettering scheme. I wonder if Speffz is actually better than the one I made up for myself because the same letters are going to be on the same faces whether they are corners or edges and they will always be right next to each other so maybe it makes more sense than what I was using before.



It doesn't really matter what lettering scheme you use, because when you get used to it it's like second nature. I start from the UF piece, naming it A, then FU is B, UL is C, LU is D and so on. I'm pretty fluent in locating them because it was my first scheme I've used, and I'm sticking to it. If you want to organise it so that you have the same letters on the same face to facilitate your learning of your scheme, it's fine too, but it's better for it to feel natural to you. 

And I totally agree with randomtypos, decide on your memo organisation early on. Mine is a wreck and I'm struggling to have consistent images and locations and stuff now.


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## Noahaha (Mar 20, 2013)

Part 2 is out! This video was very difficult for me to organize, so sorry if it seems like I'm rambling etc.


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## Zeotor (Mar 20, 2013)

In Part 2, you look at the buffer and then go to the next piece. Does the piece in the buffer belong where the next piece is? Also, should I be thinking about this in terms of where stickers go and not pieces?


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## Noahaha (Mar 20, 2013)

Zeotor said:


> In Part 2, you look at the buffer and then go to the next piece. Does the piece in the buffer belong where the next piece is? Also, should I be thinking about this in terms of where stickers go and not pieces?



Yes. Tracing your memo involves looking at each piece and seeing where it needs to go. And as I said in the video, it's about the stickers not the pieces.

I am thinking about remaking this video into two videos because I think I tried to cover a lot of material in too little time. Can I get people's thoughts on this?


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## omer (Mar 20, 2013)

Noahaha said:


> Yes. Tracing your memo involves looking at each piece and seeing where it needs to go. And as I said in the video, it's about the stickers not the pieces.
> 
> I am thinking about remaking this video into two videos because I think I tried to cover a lot of material in too little time. Can I get people's thoughts on this?


I personally think you introduced the concept of breaking into new cycles too early and too quickly. The cards analogy is great, I really liked it, but you went too fast with it. Try giving more examples with the cards and go deeper on explaining cycle breaks and how replacing like that allows to solve the card problem.
I didn't watch the rest yet though, just the first minutes.


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## Noahaha (Mar 20, 2013)

omer said:


> I personally think you introduced the concept of breaking into new cycles too early and too quickly. The cards analogy is great, I really liked it, but you went too fast with it. Try giving more examples with the cards and go deeper on explaining cycle breaks and how replacing like that allows to solve the card problem.
> I didn't watch the rest yet though, just the first minutes.



Funny story about that. The cycles thing was an accident because of the way the cards came out. I'm going to remake it and be more careful with my examples. Video will be down soon and a new one will be up tomorrow.


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## cubizh (Mar 20, 2013)

I appreciate your effort in the creation of this tutorial series. Yes, I think you should detail more certain definitions that you used in the 2nd part and go more in depth in the definitions part of solving and the notation (what UBL means and how it differs from ULB for instance). So for instance what a twisted corner means and what a buffer is and what a cycle is and after that what it means to break into a new cycle are important notions to mention before using them. I think those aspects should require a more detailed look that someone who doesn't BLD may be slightly confused about. 
On a side note, I know it's tricky but you should try to eliminate the glare on the table. Try putting a stackmat underneath (?)
But good information overall. Congratulations.
One question though, are you doing these tutorials all by heart, or you use some sort of script guide?


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## Noahaha (Mar 20, 2013)

cubizh said:


> I appreciate your effort in the creation of this tutorial series. Yes, I think you should detail more certain definitions that you used in the 2nd part and go more in depth in the definitions part of solving and the notation (what UBL means and how it differs from ULB for instance). So for instance what a twisted corner means and what a buffer is and what a cycle is and after that what it means to break into a new cycle are important notions to mention before using them. I think those aspects should require a more detailed look that someone who doesn't BLD may be slightly confused about.
> On a side note, I know it's tricky but you should try to eliminate the glare on the table. Try putting a stackmat underneath (?)
> But good information overall. Congratulations.
> One question though, are you doing these tutorials all by heart, or you use some sort of script guide?



I usually just plan it out in my head. Occasionally I'll take notes. I should have used notes this time. Thanks for your suggestions.

Sorry to everyone who was excited to learn from this today, but it's definitely better to have a great video tomorrow than a meh one today.


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## cubizh (Mar 20, 2013)

No tutorial or guide will ever be perfect or complete. 
There will always be room for future improvement. You're doing a good job. 
Thank you for sharing.


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## Noahaha (Mar 21, 2013)

I have reorganized the tutorial entirely and uploaded the new second video. I think it's a lot better.


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## Zeotor (Mar 22, 2013)

I think it's a lot better too.

What are some ways to learn my color scheme (other than through experience/practice [which I know is important])?


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## omer (Mar 22, 2013)

Zeotor said:


> I think it's a lot better too.
> 
> What are some ways to learn my color scheme (other than through experience/practice [which I know is important])?


Just try to force yourself to remember what color is where without looking. Though with practice it will just come naturally.
Same thing with the lettering scheme, try to force yourself to know where the sticker goes and what letter it has without tracing it back to its spot.


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## chris410 (Mar 22, 2013)

Great job with the video! Thank you for making this!


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## JianhanC (Mar 23, 2013)

Do you think you can talk about stickers in terms of positions? For us using different lettering schemes it can be disorienting. Looking forward to the next video!


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## Noahaha (Mar 23, 2013)

JianhanC said:


> Do you think you can talk about stickers in terms of positions? For us using different lettering schemes it can be disorienting. Looking forward to the next video!



I try to do that as much as possible, but it's really hard for me :/. The next video is probably even worse In this respect, but I do try to tap each spot and show it clearly. Sorry about that.


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## JianhanC (Mar 23, 2013)

Noahaha said:


> I try to do that as much as possible, but it's really hard for me :/. The next video is probably even worse In this respect, but I do try to tap each spot and show it clearly. Sorry about that.



No prob, it's really confusing because of the already different cube orientation, plus the different lettering scheme. Maybe you can try speaking a little slower if you're having trouble? I notice your speech rushes a bit.


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## cubizh (Mar 28, 2013)

How many parts are you thinking of doing?


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## JianhanC (Mar 28, 2013)

Really glad you tried to explain it in terms of sticker location instead of colour scheme. For those expecting the tips to get sub2 this isn't the vid. But there are still some helpful stuff in there even if you can already bld with M2+OP.


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## Noahaha (Mar 28, 2013)

JianhanC said:


> Really glad you tried to explain it in terms of sticker location instead of colour scheme. For those expecting the tips to get sub2 this isn't the vid. But there are still some helpful stuff in there even if you can already bld with M2+OP.



Video 4 is about memo and video 5 is tips for sub-2, so those should be more useful to people who already know BLD.


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## Noahaha (Apr 11, 2013)

Part 5 is out! Tutorial done! I had a lot of fun making this, and hopefully it helped some people with their BLD goals. Thanks for all the support and help I've received along the way. It really wouldn't be nearly as good without some of your suggestions and comments.


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## flee135 (Apr 11, 2013)

Thanks so much for making these! They've really inspired me to do BLD solves again, and I've been doing a ton recently (at least by my standards). Hopefully I'll see improvements soon.


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## Mikel (Apr 11, 2013)

Noahaha said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Haha It was fun imagining a "sneering angry bowl" I thought you were talking about the food bowl, not the animal.


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## Renslay (Apr 11, 2013)

You should put it in the first post also, so the parts are together. Anyway, good job!


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## TheNextFeliks (Apr 12, 2013)

I watched over half of part 5. Now I have to stop (to go to sleep). When I stopped you were just starting talking about advanced m2. Can you give me a quick explanation? Thanks. I will finish watching tomorrow but I am curious. And I will have little time tomorrow.


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## Noahaha (Apr 12, 2013)

TheNextFeliks said:


> I watched over half of part 5. Now I have to stop (to go to sleep). When I stopped you were just starting talking about advanced m2. Can you give me a quick explanation? Thanks. I will finish watching tomorrow but I am curious. And I will have little time tomorrow.



Do setup moves to give yourself easier cycles, take advantage of simple cancellations.


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## TheNextFeliks (Apr 12, 2013)

Noahaha said:


> Do setup moves to give yourself easier cycles, take advantage of simple cancellations.



Like you were about to talk about how to do the thirteen move FU and BD better. How does this work?


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## Noahaha (Apr 12, 2013)

TheNextFeliks said:


> Like you were about to talk about how to do the thirteen move FU and BD better. How does this work?



Watch the video.


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## TheNextFeliks (Apr 12, 2013)

Noahaha said:


> Watch the video.



Ok. I guess I'll wait. :|


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## cubizh (Apr 14, 2013)

Congratulations on your tutorial. It's very helpful and detailed, and it tackles the goals you set out from the start. 
The only slight problem with actually any blind tutorial is the fact that it sort of forces the user to either adopt your cube orientation or take an extra step of mapping the orientation shown to their own, which for a beginner can be somewhat of an issue. Of course this is something is very difficult to do, unless one makes 24 different versions of the same thing, which is highly unfeasible.
But overall, it's a nice series and it's always highly commendable taking the time to help others and contribute to the demystification of blindfolded events. Thank you.


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## Noahaha (Apr 14, 2013)

cubizh said:


> demystification



Haha yeah


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## Dimeg (Nov 5, 2013)

very nice explanation on the memory method. I always thought I could do a pure memo by tapping on the cube. I will give it another shot using your letterscheme!


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## AmazingCuber (Jan 5, 2014)

Thanks so much Noah! This tutorial is the best, it is clear and explains everything very well. Memo was really easy with your tutorial and you teaching an advanced method (M2) from the start is really awesome, so that I don't need to learn another method really soon.
Just got my first success yesterday, and I really like BLD now!


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## Noahaha (Jan 5, 2014)

AmazingCuber said:


> Thanks so much Noah! This tutorial is the best, it is clear and explains everything very well. Memo was really easy with your tutorial and you teaching an advanced method (M2) from the start is really awesome, so that I don't need to learn another method really soon.
> Just got my first success yesterday, and I really like BLD now!



Good to hear!


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## AmazingCuber (Jan 5, 2014)

Noahaha said:


> Good to hear!



how long did you actually take to get fast (how fast did you get fast)? Also, when did you learn 3-style?


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## Noahaha (Jan 5, 2014)

AmazingCuber said:


> how long did you actually take to get fast (how fast did you get fast)? Also, when did you learn 3-style?



My first success was in January 2012. I started 3-style around May of 2012, and then I got my first NR (41.96) in December of 2012. I wasn't averaging anywhere near 30 until last Summer or so.

I would say that I got fast by practicing and attacking my weaknesses.


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## AmazingCuber (Jan 5, 2014)

Noahaha said:


> My first success was in January 2012. I started 3-style around May of 2012, and then I got my first NR (41.96) in December of 2012. I wasn't averaging anywhere near 30 until last Summer or so.
> 
> I would say that I got fast by practicing and attacking my weaknesses.



At what speed were you when you started 3-style (May 2012)?
Thanks again for your amazing tutorials. You are a great teacher and an inspiration for BLD!


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## Noahaha (Jan 5, 2014)

AmazingCuber said:


> At what speed were you when you started 3-style (May 2012)?



~1:10


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## Borislav (Mar 20, 2014)

Thanks, Noah!
Took me 2 years to learn how to switch between the cycles.  Yeah, I know it's a long time, but I'm the only one who is able to solve the cube in my country and I was trying to figure the things out by myself... I finally got it with your great tutorials!
Best regards,
Bobby


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## DeeDubb (Mar 24, 2014)

Great tutorial. Really helped me understand the intuitive stuff about M2. Also, the memorization techniques seem to be working with the vivid story for corners and the audio for edges. I had my closest BLD solve last night (only 3 corners away), and I know I'll succeed soon. Much faster than I anticipated.

One suggestion about the description of your video:

Part 3 does not have Y-Perm or either parity algorithm in the description, so I had to jot one down from the video. Maybe this was an intentional omission, but it might be helpful to add. Also, the m-slice edge algorithms are much less intuitive than the other edges, so I had to mine those out of the huge list. Not as much of a problem though, but here's how my notes from the video look:

Y Perm (corners): R U' R' U' R U R' F' R U R' U' R' F R

Edge Parity Fix: D' L2 D M2 D' L2 D


UB (A): M2
BU (Q): B' R B U R2 U' M2 U R2 U' B' R' B

UF (C): U2 M' U2 M'
FU (I): D M' U R2 U' M U R2 U' D' M2

DB (W): M U2 M U2
BD (S): M2 D U R2 U' M' U R2 U' M D'


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## CriticalCubing (Mar 24, 2014)

Wow, Good Progress. I got my first BLD solve like 2-3 weeks back when I was avg about 26 sec 


DeeDubb said:


> Great tutorial. Really helped me understand the intuitive stuff about M2. Also, the memorization techniques seem to be working with the vivid story for corners and the audio for edges. I had my closest BLD solve last night (only 3 corners away), and I know I'll succeed soon. Much faster than I anticipated.
> 
> One suggestion about the description of your video:
> 
> ...


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## hkpnkp (Jun 14, 2015)

Which BLD method is taught in these tutorials ?


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## RomFrta33 (Jun 14, 2015)

M2/classic pochmann


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