# How does lettering translate to BLD memo to execution?



## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

I've read pretty much every recent BLD thread, looked into all the memo methods and read as many pages as I could find but I don't understand how lettering the cube then works into memo. I know this is probably extremely noobish and one of the biggest keys to BLD which is why I'm asking. How do I letter the cube? How does that help me memorize it? I plan on using roman rooms for my memo method and Old Pochmann to start. Please only reply of you have something constructive to contribute. Thanks in advance and if there are any things that need clarification I'll do my best to answer them.


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## Zane_C (Dec 13, 2010)

So first you need to label the cube of course, lets say you get the letters: fxghfsdg.
You can either use pairs or not use pairs to create your images, if you were using pairs it could be like this: You walk into the room in this order you come across a fox, ghost, fish, dog. Don't know if that contributed?
So for FoX you'll know that it is the letters F and X, so shoot to those targets.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

I just letter the cube however I choose? Do I then permute the sticker colors or the letters of the cubie?


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## Zane_C (Dec 13, 2010)

Yes it's your choice how you letter the cube, then you just apply your memo to the cube. So if UL was labelled with the letter "F", and DL was labelled with the letter "X". You'll shoot to those pieces for FoX.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

Do I letter the cubies or the stickers?


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

I don't know whether this will help much right now, but there is a standardized lettering scheme, Speffz which most of us use when talking about pieces. The cube on the Wiki page is a 7x7x7, but if you imagine the groups are just corners on a 2x2x2, then it would work to label a 2x2x2 as well.

Let's take our 2x2x2 and scramble it using: F

Let's assume that your buffer corner is URF. You can choose any corner you want, but for this example we'll use URF.

The piece in URF after the scramble is the UFL corner. Not only that, but the L face sticker of UFL is in the U position of URF. In Speffz the L face sticker of the UFL corner is lettered F. So in the buffer location we have the sticker F.

Now go to the actual F sticker location, LUF, and notice that it is the D face sticker of DLF. In Speffz this is the letter U. So our memo so far is FU. Now we look in the U sticker location, DLF, and we see the R face sticker of the RDF piece. In Speffz this is lettered P. So our memo so far is FUP. Lastly the RDF location has the U sticker for URF. This, in Speffz, is C, which is the buffer corner and we don't memorize it because we know we are done.

So the memo for a 2x2x2, in Speffz, scrambled with the turn F is FUP.

Now you can use your 2 cycle method, or 3 cycle method to solve. Any other blindfolded memorization phase would go roughly similarly. Hope this helps.


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## Zane_C (Dec 13, 2010)

The stickers, you don't have to label your buffers. You'll end up with: 22 edge letters and 21 corner letters.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

So I would re-use letters for my edges and corners? And differentiating from edge and corner lettering is just knowing when I'm done with edges before moving on to corners?


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> So I would re-use letters for my edges and corners?



Yes.



freshcuber said:


> And differentiating from edge and corner lettering is just knowing when I'm done with edges before moving on to corners?



Yes.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

I just went through the example in your above post.


Would lettering my cube with something like an expo marker and the writing down my memo at first while doing sighted solves be helpful? Also, do you know if anybody has an example BLD solve video with how they memorized the cube?


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## Julian (Dec 13, 2010)

Is this only for roman rooms?


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## Zane_C (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> Would lettering my cube with something like an expo marker and the writing down my memo at first while doing sighted solves be helpful?



I would suggest writing down your memo on paper than executing while only looking at your notes and not the cube. Because you want to be working on your execution and letter translation before the actual memorising phase.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

Should I use uppercase letters like A, B, and C for corners and then lowercase ones, a, b, c, for edges while writing it down?


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## Zane_C (Dec 13, 2010)

That's not very necessary, your going to be either executing all your edges first or all your corners first so it shouldn't be hard to distinguish them. You can just start a new line when you switch to the corners/edges.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

But lettering the cube is a good idea?


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## Zane_C (Dec 13, 2010)

No, just memorise your lettering scheme. Ideally your letters should be in a specific pattern, so it shouldn't be that difficult to memorise.


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> I just went through the example in your above post.
> 
> 
> Would lettering my cube with something like an expo marker and the writing down my memo at first while doing sighted solves be helpful?



I think this could definitely be helpful. Just don't plan to use it in competition:


> 3e1) The stickers/tiles/textures/paint may show an image (in one colour), as long as all stickers/tiles/textures/paint of a colour have the image and the same image.



However, I think doing something like this could be a very good way to learn your lettering scheme very quickly.



freshcuber said:


> Also, do you know if anybody has an example BLD solve video with how they memorized the cube?


 
I don't know of one, but perhaps others reading this thread do?


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

I'm debating between labeling my corners individually by doing each on clockwise so the ULB would have A for U, B for F and C for the L face, or doing each face clockwise so it would start in ULB with A on top. Then go to URB and have B on top ect ect. Then I would start on the F face with UFL have F as E and them continuing on as such.


Yes I would only have my cube lettered until I was used to my lettering scheme. I know badmephisto has a BLD tutorial. I watched it a long time ago. Should I look into it again? I know for memo he used the cubes color scheme for letters so with yellow on top and green in front URF would be YRB


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> I'm debating between labeling my corners individually by doing each on clockwise so the ULF would have A for U, B for F and C for the L face, or doing each face clockwise so it would start in ULB with A on top. Them got to URB and have B on top ect ect. Then I would start on the F face with UFL have F as E and them continuing on as such.



Letter your cube in a way that makes the most sense to you. As far as I am aware, no one uses the Speffz scheme exactly as it is for their own personal solving. Think of Speffz as the common tongue spoken in Lord of the Rings. It's basically a way that you can talk to other BLD cubers about the solve you just had in a short, easy way that everyone would understand.




freshcuber said:


> Yes I would only have my cube lettered until I was used to my lettering scheme


 
If you feel it would help you, then I say go for it.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

I edited my last post. Not sure if you saw it.

So Speffz can be applied to 3x3 and all other puzzles?


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> I know for memo he used the cubes color scheme for letters so with yellow on top and green in front URF would be YRB


 
I don't understand this part. If Yellow is on top and Green in front then URF should be YOG. Also, how are you using the colors to memorize the cycles? I haven't seen badmephisto's tutorial to be honest.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

Yea you're right I messed that up. But if you do a T-Perm then an L2 then another T-Perm and L2 you'd have three misplaced edges with red-white in the buffer(yellow on top green in front) then he'd memorize the cubies by their sticker color and orientation. Since white is on top in the buffer and red-yellow edge is where red-white needs to go he'd bring the sticker in the white stickers position up. So set up move is L2 and then a T-Perm. 


I haven't seen the video in months so I could be remembering it wrong.


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> Yea you're right I messed that up. But if you do a T-Perm then an L2 then another T-Perm and L2 you'd have three misplaced edges with red-white in the buffer(yellow on top green in front) then he'd memorize the cubies by their sticker color and orientation. Since white is on top in the buffer and red-yellow edge is where red-white needs to go he'd bring the sticker in the white stickers position up. So set up move is L2 and then a T-Perm.
> 
> 
> I haven't seen the video in months so I could be remembering it wrong.


 
That sounds very similar to Stefan Pochmann's description on his original page about his BLD method. I imagine badmephisto is doing something similar. By the way, you do not need to use letters to encode images. Most of us do, but if you wanted to use colors then you could do this. This is, in fact, what Stefan suggested in his page. For letters people usually, not always but usually, recommend to encode two _pieces_ per image, so two letters per image. If you had, say, the white-red edge this would be the letter V for me. I would then take the Yellow-Red edge in that location and give it the letter B. So the first two pieces in that cycle are the image *V*olley *B*all. If you are using colors, and want to encode two pieces per image, then you would need to have a corresponding image for white-red -> yellow-red.

If you do not wish to use two pieces per image, then just prepare more journey locations, and probably also place only one or two images per location and this could work just as well. This is just my opinion, but it uses a similar philosophy to how Boris Konrad told me that he memorizes, and he is one of the best in the world at memory sports.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

It's a tutorial on Old Pochmann so it should sound similar. If I use two pieces per image then how many images will I need? Isn't something like 500?


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> If I use two pieces per image then how many images will I need? Isn't something like 500?


 
24 * 22 = 528 for edges and 24 * 21 = 504 for corners. If you want images for single letters, then add 24 to each number.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

*jaw drops*

That's a pretty substantial amount of images to say the least. I thought on your site it said that there were only 512 combinations.


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> *jaw drops*
> 
> That's a pretty substantial amount of images to say the least. I thought on your site it said that there were only 512 combinations.


 
Don't think of them as two separate lists, there are 504 images used for corners (528 if you want images for the single letters). All 504 of these images are useful for edges as well, you just need 24 more images to "complete" the image set to also work on edges.

The total number of images that must be known is 528 (552 if you use images for the single letters).

--edit--
If you use one image per piece, then just prepare more journey locations. I would recommend to place one image per location if you do this, perhaps two images per location. This approach has also been proven to be very fast.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

Alright then it's about as many as I had first thought. Should I make a list of images as I go along for my first few solves and fill in the blanks later or should I make it before I start?


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## cmhardw (Dec 13, 2010)

freshcuber said:


> Should I make a list of images as I go along for my first few solves and fill in the blanks later or should I make it before I start?


 
That's a tough question... whichever works for you? I made about 60-75% of my list before I started attempting to use the images during my solves. I like it personally to know the method in full and just prepare all the images beforehand. For my single syllable words list I prepared the entire list before using it on a solve. A lot of people seem to start more "freestyle" with their images, but over time you will start to find images that you repeat often.

Perhaps try this, just use whatever comes to mind with a certain letter combination during a solve. After the solve, on a list of all possible combinations, write down the images you used. Look at a couple of others' image lists to get some ideas of how to handle the more difficult letters like Q, X, V, etc. If you find this is helpful then just keep doing that until you complete a full list. If that doesn't work for you, then at least you will have a start to your list that you can then complete to have a full list.


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## freshcuber (Dec 13, 2010)

I'll letter my cube and then start up an image list. I'm pretty sure that I have a study hall in school tomorrow and can get a lot of it done there. Thanks for all your help and if I have any more questions I'll just post here again.


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## Cubenovice (Dec 13, 2010)

A "simple" way to get started without having to prepare 500+ images is the following:
Prepare a list with the 24 possible color combinations and attach an image to each of them.

Base the images on the actual colors of the pieces, the target sticker bing the predominant color in the image
orange - green = carrot this is the orange sticker on the orange-green edge (orange vegetable with some green loaf)
green - orange = parrot this is the green stacker on the same edge (green bird with an orange beak)

You can use the same images for your corners (make sure to read them all clockwise)
carrot: this is the orange sticker on the orange-green-yellow corner
parrot: this is the green sticker on the green-orange-white corner

24 images is all you need ;-)

*BUT!!!*
In this *single-image *system the *actual story *you have to memorise during the solve is *twice as long *as in the letter-pair method

This is a way to quickly set up a scheme for practicing BLD, in the mean time you can work on the 500+ list for letter-pairs.


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## amostay2004 (Dec 13, 2010)

I don't think you should limit yourself to images though. Seriously you don't have to do so much preparation to start BLD, just label all your pieces with letters (though I suggest a different memo system for corners (visual/auditory/etc)) and use whatever you can think of to memo them. As you progress you'll find yourself developing your own memo system


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## riffz (Dec 13, 2010)

cmhardw said:


> 24 * 22 = 528 for edges and 24 * 21 = 504 for corners. If you want images for single letters, then add 24 to each number.


 
If he uses a fixed buffer then he really only needs 22*20 images for edges and 21*18 for corners.


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## freshcuber (Dec 14, 2010)

I have my fixed buffers at the UR edge and the ULB corner. After I lettered my cube it came out that I somehow only need 462 images.


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## freshcuber (Dec 14, 2010)

Okay so I've gotten about half of my list completed. I think I'll spend a little more time on my list and then make an attempt at edges. I understand edges better than I do corners. I'll permute the corners correctly but the orientation is often off by a twist. I tend to mess up my set up moves for corners as well. My problem is that I can use a Y-perm with no AUF for corners but when doing Ja and Jb-perms I have to do a cube rotation because of the angle I currently solve them at. Should I just practice integrated these rotations into my setup moves or learn two new algs?


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## Cubenovice (Dec 14, 2010)

Sounds like you should* lose* two algs...
Forget about J's for now and work with T for edges, Y for corners and R for parity.

Once you get comfortable with the whole method it becomes easier to add algs to shoot to different targets.

edit: reading your post it looks like you use the J's for corners???


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## freshcuber (Dec 14, 2010)

I use J's for both corners and edges. I use mostly T and Jb (I think it's Jb its the R U R' F' R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' one) and I use Y for corners but sometimes the set up moves are a pain so I'll try to use a J and then I just mess up the set up moves anyway.


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## Cubenovice (Dec 14, 2010)

Then I suggest to ditch the J's for corners (how does that even work?) and stick to Y only.
The set up moves for corners via Y are pretty straightforward.


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## freshcuber (Dec 14, 2010)

Because the J-Perms move two adjacent edges they can be used along with the Y-Perm for corners as long as the same adjacent edges are being swapped(that's where I'd have to rotate the cube) The only difference between using Y and J-Perms is that the corners you shoot from the buffer too are different. With the right algs you could shoot the buffer piece to an other top layer corner while swapping the same edges.

I'll work on the setup moves though and report back later. I think I'll make an actual BLD attempt at edges tonight and see how it goes.


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## cmhardw (Dec 14, 2010)

Perhaps reflecting your alg over FB would be beneficial?

R' U' R B R' U' R U R B' R2 U R U


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## freshcuber (Dec 14, 2010)

My second J-Perm (R' U2 R U R' U2 L U' R U L') performs those moves but I'll look into reflecting the algs


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## freshcuber (Dec 14, 2010)

I reflected it over the RL plane and that was EXACTLY what I needed. Plus the fingertricks are identical but with my left hand. Thanks! I think that will help a ton.


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## freshcuber (Dec 14, 2010)

I have 361/462 images now, which is just over 78%. Thanks Chris, your site helped a lot with just inspiration and maybe a tad bit of plagiarism. I hope you don't mind. I'll make the edges attempt after I eat dinner and if that goes well then I'll try corners. I don't expect a successful totally unaided solve until this weekend but we'll see how things go.:tu


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