Modified major systems

General Memory Chat
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I am about to start using the major system. I know that an imperfect system that you use is infinitely better than a perfect system you don’t use, but I can’t help it: What are the best systems?

I know the major system works perfectly well and tons of people use it to great effect. I also know that some people used modified major systems.

from

The magician Derren Brown, for instance, chooses the number 5 to map to the f and v sounds because the word 'five' uses both of those sounds. Josh, the webmaster, uses b for 6 along with some other modifications The Ben System is similar to the Major System in its use of consonants, but expands it with vowels in a similar way to Richard Grey's method from 1730.[6] The Dominic System uses both consonants and vowels, and uses the letters to suggest the initials of people. The Harold Mangum System uses phonetic sounds for 0 to 9 based on the most common form of the Major System, mentioned above: Suh, Tuh, Nuh, Muh, Ruh, Luh, Shuh, Cuh, Fuh, Puh.

So before I start committing a system to memory, can you help me decide how/if I should modify the major system to create my own method? What are the most common and intuitive modifications to make to the major system? Are there any that make sense to you that you love to use?

I would like to run some frequency statistics like those represented by this graph : Major System mnemonic technique database, list and generator
for different modified major systems.

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Asking for the best system is like asking for the best species of cat. Surely some systems might be easier to apply or easier to learn, but in the end most is personal preference. If you want to modify the system to be “perfect” you have to modify it to be “perfect” for you. :slight_smile:

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I like my system, but it was modified (from the Major and Ben Systems) in ways that fit the way my brain works, so I’m biased. :slight_smile:

0-9 => vowel
00-99 => consonant-vowel (explained here)
000-999 => consonant-vowel-consonant (Ben System)

The reason I modified the system for 0-9 and 00-99 is because I wanted all images to have a one-syllable pronounciation. Other than that, I don’t think that it matters much.

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My favorite modded major system im using right now is this one. Feels like this is how it should have been taught originally.
0 = z, c, s
1= n
2 = t, d
3 = m
4 = r
5 = f, v
6 = soft g, j, ch or sh or both
7 = L
8 = hard g, k
9 = b, p
The intuition for these feels better for me. I guess you could pick better ones for 6 and 8. Switching between phonetics and then visual association is a little weird. Like 0, 1, 2, 4, 5 has clear phonetics for how it sounds. 3 looks like m. 6 looks like g. 7 looks like L. 8 is kinda like g but yeah pretty weak. 9 looks like p and b.

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When I began using a PAO long ago, I made my own association for the letters (mostly because I thought the “official” associations didn’t make sense, plus it wasn’t in my native tongue anyway).
For example 5 is clearly S for me because of the shape, 8 is B…
In the end it doesn’t really matter, once you’ve learnt them you don’t think about it anymore.