# Noah's 3-Style Tutorial



## Noahaha (Nov 27, 2012)

I know I have a thread for my tutorials, but this one is so special that I think it deserves it's own thread! 

The tutorial is complete! Post below if you have any questions, complaints or praise!


*Part 1: Overview*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYvxVT3vruE



> This is part one of my 3-style tutorial. I recommend this method for anyone averaging around 1:30 and wants to get serious about 3BLD. If you're not quite that fast yet, I'll be releasing a series of videos on how to get sub-1:30 on Cubing World in February =)



*Part 2: Pure Corner Commutators*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok51Ktn1GKg



> In this video I show what a pure commutator is and then show how to use a commutator to cycle three corners.



*Part 3: Corner Commutators Continued*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgXfvgtxt9s



> In this video I continue talking about pure commutators and then move into setup moves. Sorry about the length, but these are some of the most important concepts for 3-style. Enjoy!
> 
> NOTE: The commutators I use throughout this video are not necessarily the ones I would use during a solve. For some of them I am simply trying to demonstrate a certain type of commutator, so I am solving the case a little bit inefficiently.



*Part 4: Making the Transition*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZKK2EXD318



> In this video I show you how, using only the knowledge of pure commutators and setup moves from the last two videos, you can very efficiently work your way up to full 3-style. Enjoy, and good luck!



*Part 5: Edges*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtn0Y6Y8ZQg



> In this video I explain the three main types of edge commutators and talk a little about making the transition. If you have a good grasp of corner comms and setup moves, switching to 3-style for edges should not be very difficult.



*Part 6: Parity*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xGbJ4ic6oE



> Parity method does not really depend on solving method, but switching to an advanced solving method is as good a time as any to learn more advanced parity techniques. Enjoy!



*Part 7: 3BLD Tips*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_NfOaRhqtg



> In this video I talk about some techniques for improving, some ways to detect your mistakes and some things to watch out for in your solves.



*Part 8: 3BLD Example Solves*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMHNtYcw70o



> Here are three example solves. I recommend that you follow along in your orientation on your cube so that you can get the feel of things.



*Part 9: Big Cube Edges*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqeZx2nFCrE



> In this video I talk about commutators for wings and midges on big cubes.



*Part 10: Big Cube Centers*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkWMuWjutnE



> In this final video of my tutorial, I talk about the three different kinds of center commutators for the three different kinds of center pieces.


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## blackzabbathfan (Nov 27, 2012)

Awesome!! Thanks for making it!


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## Noahaha (Nov 28, 2012)

Part 2 up!


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## blackzabbathfan (Nov 28, 2012)

Awesome!


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## DrKorbin (Nov 28, 2012)

Lol!
Funny interpretation with coins!
Too bad that I've already understand comms - I would enjoyed to learn them by your video.
Imho, you should pay more attention to a distinguishing A B A' B' from B A B' A'. (But maybe you explained it well and I just didn't understand - sorry then).


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## Noahaha (Nov 28, 2012)

DrKorbin said:


> Lol!
> Funny interpretation with coins!
> Too bad that I've already understand comms - I would enjoyed to learn them by your video.
> Imho, you should pay more attention to a distinguishing A B A' B' from B A B' A'. (But maybe you explained it well and I just didn't understand - sorry then).



Thanks. I was at a restaurant one time and I did some commutators with my silverware, and that's how I thought of it. 

I tried to explain that difference using the terms insertion first and interchange first, but you're right that it was a little brief. I'll elaborate more in my next video.


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## antoineccantin (Nov 29, 2012)

I think you should concentrate more on the setups to interchages & stuff. I still don't quite understand.


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## Noahaha (Nov 29, 2012)

antoineccantin said:


> I think you should concentrate more on the setups to interchages & stuff. I still don't quite understand.



That's the next video =P.


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## maggot (Nov 29, 2012)

i also have struggled trying to learn bh with other videos. i have given up with most of them. hopefully your set of videos will help me understand. i also already well understand the concept of a commutator, however, i did think your explaination was kind of nifty. i also think that this video leaves much to be desired on how to effectively find your interchange (because they aren't always easy to spot).


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## Noahaha (Nov 29, 2012)

maggot said:


> i also have struggled trying to learn bh with other videos. i have given up with most of them. hopefully your set of videos will help me understand. i also already well understand the concept of a commutator, however, i did think your explaination was kind of nifty. i also think that this video leaves much to be desired on how to effectively find your interchange (because they aren't always easy to spot).



Thanks for the feedback. This will help me make the coming videos as helpful as possible.


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## Speedmaster (Dec 2, 2012)

This video is just awesome !!!!!
But i don't understand, when i should do ABA'B' or BAB'A'


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## Noahaha (Dec 2, 2012)

Speedmaster said:


> This video is just awesome !!!!!
> But i don't understand, when i should do ABA'B' or BAB'A'



Think about the coins example. It depends on which direction the cycle is going. The easiest way to think about it is to look at which of the interchange pieces is going to the other one. That's the one that needs to be acted on by the insertion (A move) first.

Let's say you want to solve:
RUF->DFR->DBL

You can insert using R U R' or B' U2 B.
The interchange is D2
Since DFR goes to DBL, that's the spot that needs to be inserted into first. If you use R U R' as your insertion you'll do ABA'B' since R U R' inserts into DFR. If you use B' U2 B as your insertion you'll use BAB'A' since B' U2 B inserts into DBL. 

Hope this helps.


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## Speedmaster (Dec 3, 2012)

Thank you  now I understand it , your videos are so much better than the ones of Byu


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## NevinsCPH (Dec 3, 2012)

I'm so looking forward for part 3, which I think its probably what will push me into full corner comms, considering sometimes I spot the interchange but just not the insertion. , Btw, will you go over the topic of 'buffer'? I'm using UBL as buffer.


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## Speedmaster (Dec 3, 2012)

Is there a program, which gives you scrambles for pure commutators?


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## Noahaha (Dec 3, 2012)

Speedmaster said:


> Is there a program, which gives you scrambles for pure commutators?



You can always use Old Pochmann to set them up.


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## Speedmaster (Dec 3, 2012)

But I don't know, if they are possible to solve with a pure commutator, or could i just do more moves for the interchange and solve every case like this?


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## Noahaha (Dec 6, 2012)

Part 3 is up! 

I tried to take as many of your suggestions as possible and answer all questions unanswered in part 2, so it ended up pretty long. 

Tell me what you think


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## NevinsCPH (Dec 6, 2012)

Noah, is there any 'intuitive' case for UBL > DLF > URF? All I can come up with is just setup > caltech > setup.


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## Noahaha (Dec 6, 2012)

NevinsCPH said:


> Noah, is there any 'intuitive' case for UBL > DLF > URF? All I can come up with is just setup > caltech > setup.



I do [D ; [R' F' R2 F R , U2]. I don't think there's anything better.


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## NevinsCPH (Dec 6, 2012)

Noahaha said:


> I do [D ; [R' F' R2 F R , U2]. I don't think there's anything better.



Whoa, I tried looking at how pieces go and this is so amazing! Thanks !
Somehow quite difficult to track pieces too. XD


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## brandbest1 (Dec 6, 2012)

NevinsCPH said:


> Noah, is there any 'intuitive' case for UBL > DLF > URF? All I can come up with is just setup > caltech > setup.



lol caltech


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## Noahaha (Dec 6, 2012)

NevinsCPH said:


> Whoa, I tried looking at how pieces go and this is so amazing! Thanks !
> Somehow quite difficult to track pieces too. XD



And if you want to insert UFR into DFR do R2' U R2 U' R2' =D


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## NevinsCPH (Dec 7, 2012)

Noahaha said:


> And if you want to insert UFR into DFR do R2' U R2 U' R2' =D



Yea thats what I used to do too when experimenting with 3OP corners.


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## DrKorbin (Dec 7, 2012)

Well, I think the 3rd part is good (I mean I have no comments, remarks or suggestions).


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## Noahaha (Dec 14, 2012)

Part 4 is up (finally)!


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## A Leman (Dec 14, 2012)

These video's are nothing like what I thought they would be. You are doing a great job explaining things for people who start from OP, but there are also some things I would have liked to have known earlier or some extra hints/tricks that could help someone's "happy hunting" which could be helpfull. We can talk at LSC about that stuff. Also, you said you were not going to try to show a bunch of particular algs, but you mentioned the 5 move inserts a bunch of times. I have never used a 5 move insert and I know they are only needed if you want an optimal per special which your 5 movers don't do anyway. Have you tried doing cases without them with things like L' U'R2U' L UR2U' L' U2L?


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## Noahaha (Dec 14, 2012)

A Leman said:


> These video's are nothing like what I thought they would be. You are doing a great job explaining things for people who start from OP, but there are also some things I would have liked to have known earlier or some extra hints/tricks that could help someone's "happy hunting" which could be helpfull. We can talk at LSC about that stuff. Also, you said you were not going to try to show a bunch of particular algs, but you mentioned the 5 move inserts a bunch of times. I have never used a 5 move insert and I know they are only needed if you want an optimal per special which your 5 movers don't do anyway. Have you tried doing cases without them with things like L' U'R2U' L UR2U' L' U2L?



I have actually never used something like that. I just think that the five move insertions are super easy to use and very fast to execute. They also save people from the horrors of (R U R' U')3. I don't count showing that insertion as showing a case because it's applications are as unlimited as using R U R' as an insertion. I probably should have mentioned that you only need that insertion when the interchange corners are diagonal though. I'm interested to hear what you have to say at LSC, and perhaps I'll integrate some of it into my tutorials.


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## DrKorbin (Dec 14, 2012)

I'll just pedantically notice that it is wrong that every sticker is interchangeable with either UBL or DFR. Contrary instance - LUF.
In fact, these stickers DFR, FRD, RDF are basically the same. There are the same amount of stickers that are interchangeable with everyone of these. Every alg UBL>DFR>* is a rotation of another alg UBL>FRD>* and a rotation of UBL>RDF>*.


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## Noahaha (Dec 14, 2012)

DrKorbin said:


> I'll just pedantically notice that it is wrong that every sticker is interchangeable with either UBL or DFR. Contrary instance - LUF.
> In fact, these stickers DFR, FRD, RDF are basically the same. There are the same amount of stickers that are interchangeable with everyone of these. Every alg UBL>DFR>* is a rotation of another alg UBL>FRD>* and a rotation of UBL>RDF>*.



Good catch. Not sure how I forgot about those four


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## Noahaha (Dec 18, 2012)

Part 5 up.


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## DrKorbin (Dec 26, 2012)

Ummm.... Noah, I thought you will make a more detailed corners tutorial, like, different cases (A9, cyclic shifts, columns, per specials - and how to distinguish them). You won't do it, right?


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## Noahaha (Dec 26, 2012)

*Noah's BLD Tutorials*



DrKorbin said:


> Ummm.... Noah, I thought you will make a more detailed corners tutorial, like, different cases (A9, cyclic shifts, columns, per specials - and how to distinguish them). You won't do it, right?



Right. I can't teach things I don't know, and I really don't know anything past pures and A9s. Plus there's already a fairly satisfactory tutorial on that. I'm just trying to present a quick way to go from OP to commutators.

I apologize to anyone who was expecting something else, but I think that my approach is equally valid and allows things to be a little more intuitive than the other way. Instead of asking themselves, "what kind of commutator is this?" people will be asking themselves "what setup move do I need to turn this into a pure comm?" which I think is a more important skill in the long run.

From what I have seen, people who just learn the types of commutators and then apply them often spend a long time before their cycles are at all automatic. Using this technique I had cycles, albeit very inefficient ones, for every corner case within a few weeks of learning it, but the important thing was that even if I came across a case I hadn't seen before, I didn't have to figure anything out, but just set up one of the corners to DFR/FDR/RDF.

The way I see it these are two equally valid approaches to 3-style, and perhaps I am a little defficient on the actual types of cycles side, but I learned 3-style very quickly and I just wanted to share how I did it.


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## Noahaha (Dec 27, 2012)

Part 6


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## Noahaha (Jan 8, 2013)

I felt bad about going so long without making one, so I made 7 and 8. Enjoy!


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## A Leman (Jan 8, 2013)

Part 7 just made my day.

You suggested Alot of great stuff that I should be doing.



Spoiler: About the last 1/2 minute



I had the last part of the video quoted, but I just thought better of it.

There are so many old posts that give golden advice about how to improve CFOP/FreeFop Inspection and make Lookahead much easier.
If you want to start caring about 3x3(or just get sub-15 and go back to blind) go searching through the forum and start with this
http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?25525-F2L-Edge-Orientation-guide 
It took me a while to figure out what rowan was talking about doing during inspection, but it also changed how I think about 3x3, cut seconds off my average and made lookahed easier. You should basically know your F2LEO even If you don't plan to immediately fix it because you only need at most 1 rotation and the inspection tells you which order you look for your pairs plus finding the f2l edges in inspection will give you an idea of where they are later on so you only need to track corners.
gogogo sub-15, good luck Noah


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## Noahaha (Jan 8, 2013)

Thanks Arrik! 

About 3x3, I just do it for fun because it's quick and easy. I love freestyle F2Ls though (I usually get my best times on them) so I'll be sure to check that stuff out.


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## KJiptner (Jan 12, 2013)

Excellent stuff. I really liked your points on "deliberate practice" in part 7 of the series.


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## DrKorbin (Jan 12, 2013)

In the 1st scramble a parity can be solved L (V-perm) L'


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## Noahaha (Jan 24, 2013)

Last two parts are up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I put a lot of work into this, so hopefully a lot of people learn from it. 

Tell me what you think!


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## DrKorbin (Jan 25, 2013)

Part 9:
4:20 - imo this is not the best way because it involves cube rotations. I would suggest U' R' U [U R U', r2] U' R U.
6:00 - very nonoptimal! It is A9! r' [D2, r' U2 r] r
(You probably should mention this type of commutator).
Part 10 - ok 

Well, maybe I look like a pedant and bore because express only remarks and correction, but that only means that I think the rest part is good 
You videos are cool, hope somebody will learn 3-style with them (not me, sorry ).


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## Noahaha (Jan 25, 2013)

DrKorbin said:


> Part 9:
> 4:20 - imo this is not the best way because it involves cube rotations. I would suggest U' R' U [U R U', r2] U' R U.
> 6:00 - very nonoptimal! It is A9! r' [D2, r' U2 r] r
> (You probably should mention this type of commutator).
> ...



Thanks for the comments. I've never actually tried to make my wing algs fast; I've only ever tried to be able to do them automatically, so that's why some of them are very bad. 

I know I'm not the best person for making big BLD videos since I have very little experience with it, but I felt like I had to make them for the sake of completion.


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## etshy (Mar 13, 2013)

Noahaha said:


> Thanks for the comments. I've never actually tried to make my wing algs fast; I've only ever tried to be able to do them automatically, so that's why some of them are very bad.
> 
> I know I'm not the best person for making big BLD videos since I have very little experience with it, but I felt like I had to make them for the sake of completion.



I know I'm still slow on memorization , but OP for corners made me sick , so I tried BH just for fun , and surprisingly after watching your videos of pure commutators , I figured it out , and I made my own algorithms , and I used prisma puzzle timer to generate OP corners to practice 
the fun part is that I only made algorithms for 1 sticker ( as you said ) but I'm able to solve 85% of cases that I see for the first time  
I absolutely switching to BH corners , not for speed , because I still suck @ memo ( 2 mins memo ) but because it's so much fun 
Your tutorials are the best , I just started BLD 3 weeks ago , my times went from 10 mins to 4 mins , it's just a shame I started cubing only 6 months ago ( I'm 22 years ) and I'm in senior year in college , if only I have enough time  
You're Great man , and congrats on the NAR


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## Username (May 18, 2013)

I just wanna check I understood correctly: 3 Example solves from me



Spoiler: Solve 1



R2 U F2 L2 B2 F2 D' B2 L2 D' U B' D2 F2 R B2 U2 R U' R F2

7'/12 (solving 2 edges into opposite positions)

Edges: 
[U R' U', M2]
[U' M2 U, R]
x' [M' U' M, D2]
[R E R', D'] x
x [M, D' L2 D] x'
x2 [L U L' U', M] x2


Corners:

y x' [R2 U R2 U' R2, D] x y'
y' [R' F' R2 F R, U'] y
[D L' D', R']
U [R D' R', U] U'

Parity: D F2 Y-perm F2 D' (cancellations obviously)

Looking back at that solve, I could have solved other edges to opposite positions since there were U layer edges in the U layer in incorrect positions already...





Spoiler: Solve 2



F2 D2 L F2 D2 L2 R D2 L D2 B2 F' L F2 R2 U B2 D' F2 L' 

8/10'

Edges: 
y [D, M' U2 M] y'
R' U [M', U2] U' R
F x2 y' [R' U R U', M'] y x2 F'
y' z' [M', B' R B] z y
x [U L U', M] x'
Flip BD with Buffer however you want to

Corners:
y x R2 [D2, R U R'] R2 x' y'
y2 [R' F' R2 F R, U2] y2
[D L' D', R']
y' [U R2 U', L']





Spoiler:  Solve 3



D2 R2 U2 L2 U B2 D U2 R2 B2 U R B' F2 D' L B F2 L B2

9/12 (2 edges into opposite positions)

Edges: 
y' [R E R', D] y
y [M', U L2 U'] y'
U2 x L' U' L U M' U' L' U l x' U2
[D2, M] 
R U' [M', U2] U R'
R' U' [M' U2] U R

Corners:

y' x' [R2 U R2 U' R2, D'] x y
U2 R2 x [R U R', D2] x' R2 U2
R [R D' R', U] R'
x [R' D2 R, U'] x'

Parity: R Y-perm R'



There are obviously cancellations in all the solves. Parity in solves 1 and 3

Did I understand the tutorial correctly?


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## gilad12 (May 25, 2013)

thanks,, really helped me ! learning how bf solving this week


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## JaketheSnake (Jan 19, 2014)

Is there a certain list of these algs anywhere?


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## TDM (Jan 19, 2014)

JaketheSnake said:


> Is there a certain list of these algs anywhere?


For corners, Noah has a list of all corner comms here. However, you shouldn't learn 3-style as algs; commutators are intuitive and there's over 900 (?) algs to learn if you don't do 3-style intuitively.


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