Tracing Boards

[Bob Franks]

How long to learn a lecture?

Bob,
How long did it take you to learn it? I'm thinking of taking this challenge. As far as I know, we only have one guy in the area (our GL District Rep who happens to belong to our lodge) who does it and his schedule is packed! Some day I think we'll find ourselves in a jam.

Now, first of all, I'd been listening on the sidelines for 30 years [I'm a slow learner!].
Second, we have an exact ritual, coded in the parts we do not write.
Third, Bobby W., my lecture coach is knowledgeable, "fluent," and an excellent teacher.
Each of the lectures runs about 8-10 pages in the ritual book. We would meet and he would teach me to "read" about 3 pages. I would then go home and after sitting with the book and "reading" each morning all of what we'd gone over, I would take the next 15-45 words to memorize that day. I would then practice the lecture as far as I'd learned in full, as least once each day.
Took me a year for all 3. So, about 4 months each.
I was expecting a year EACH.
I also found that after memorizing the day's lesson, if I practiced a small piece, i.e., a charge or the Apron Presentation, I could then see if I still had the day's lesson. This 'distraction' proved very valuable.

This help?

S&F

 

[Zack]

Br. Zack,
Though I practice each of the Lectures on a 3 day cycle, if I don't deliver them on the floor of the lodge, they get rusty. The more I actually deliver them, the easier they get.
The old adage, "Practice makes perfect," holds for me!

Maybe delivering the Winding Staircase Lecture a few times will make it easier.

S&F

I've done the FC Lecture probably 20 times in open lodge and Lord knows how many times alone.
I've come to the conclusion that using the canvas with its visual cues/clues, my mind jumps ahead when seeing them and I get "ahead of myself" so to speak and have to gather myself which causes a pause and some ers and ahs. Once I get away from the staircase part I'm OK.
I prefer to leave it to those who do a better presentation.

 

[Ashlar2006]

I've done the FC Lecture probably 20 times in open lodge and Lord knows how many times alone.
I've come to the conclusion that using the canvas with its visual cues/clues, my mind jumps ahead when seeing them and I get "ahead of myself" so to speak and have to gather myself which causes a pause and some ers and ahs. Once I get away from the staircase part I'm OK.
I prefer to leave it to those who do a better presentation.

I have the same problem . But mine is not the visual cues , my problem is that I am thinking ahead to the next parts of the lecture . I have since learned to shut that off by thinking about things unrelated to Freemasonry while I am delivering lectures . A couple of months ago I thought I would try this out . The lectures flow automatically and naturally if I am not focusing all my concentration on them and it worked like a dream for me .

The last time I delivered the Staircase lecture a couple of weeks ago , I thought about repainting my basement and what color I would like to paint it and where I would like to take the wife out to dinner and how cool the new True Grit movie was the entire time I delivered the lecture .

 

[Duncan1574]

Another side of lecture/tracing/boards/slide shows/etc.
Some of my favorite memories of my journey is seeing a Brother pause to gather himself, be given a word or two, and then to continue on. These are a sign to me: Their humanness, they are not perfect, and therefore my imperfectness is okay in Lodge. If on the other hand, everything went off without a hitch, lockstep-ed, and perfect, I would be more hesitant to continue, feeling that I couldn't live up to that level of perfection.

 

[Bob Franks]

delivering lectures

Another side of lecture/tracing/boards/slide shows/etc.
Some of my favorite memories of my journey is seeing a Brother pause to gather himself, be given a word or two, and then to continue on. These are a sign to me: Their humanness, they are not perfect, and therefore my imperfectness is okay in Lodge. If on the other hand, everything went off without a hitch, lockstep-ed, and perfect, I would be more hesitant to continue, feeling that I couldn't live up to that level of perfection.

WOW! I must be more human than anyone else I know!!


S&F

 

[Ashlar2006]

Another side of lecture/tracing/boards/slide shows/etc.
Some of my favorite memories of my journey is seeing a Brother pause to gather himself, be given a word or two, and then to continue on. These are a sign to me: Their humanness, they are not perfect, and therefore my imperfectness is okay in Lodge. If on the other hand, everything went off without a hitch, lockstep-ed, and perfect, I would be more hesitant to continue, feeling that I couldn't live up to that level of perfection.

Yes , it is nice to see we all make mistakes . For some though , when they make mistakes , they grow frustrated and things progressively become worse for them and they make more and more mistakes as they grow more and more frustrated . I am of the mind if I make mistake , who cares , if someone does not like it , they can take the time to put these lectures to memory and deliver them themselves .

 

[Bob Franks]

keeping on track in lectures

I have the same problem . But mine is not the visual cues , my problem is that I am thinking ahead to the next parts of the lecture . I have since learned to shut that off by thinking about things unrelated to Freemasonry while I am delivering lectures . A couple of months ago I thought I would try this out . The lectures flow automatically and naturally if I am not focusing all my concentration on them and it worked like a dream for me .

The last time I delivered the Staircase lecture a couple of weeks ago , I thought about repainting my basement and what color I would like to paint it and where I would like to take the wife out to dinner and how cool the new True Grit movie was the entire time I delivered the lecture .

Gotta watch that!
A friend of mine, delivering a Funeral Service, noticed a very attractive woman sitting in the family group, and lost track. A friend whispered, "Do you need me to give you the next word?"
He whispered back, "No, I need you to tell me what I just said!"

S&F

 

[brothaofdes]

Our Brothers, for centuries, used a specific method to pass on the mysteries. And they used this method for a reason. Maybe they weren't dummies.

Maybe I am misinformed, but I was led to believe that the tracing boards were first produced in the late 1800's. they originated from the Trestle Boards and also from the diagrams drawn with chalk on the floor during degrees.

Early on, when lodges were held wherever they could be (taverns, restaurants, etc...) masonic lectures were visualized by pictures that were drawn on the wood floor with chalk. Later when this became difficult and cumbersome, they started to use chalk boards (trestle boards), and also to have oblong carpets made with the symbols stitched into the fabric. They would unroll the section pertaining to the degree they were giving.

But, finding someone to draw, the time it takes to draw the symbols, and/or the expense of purchasing a carpet with the symbols on it became a big problem. So, the tracing board was created as a lithograph, which can be readily and accurately reproduced at a very inexpensive cost. But, this happened in the late 1800's, not centuries ago.

Sorry, I don't mean to be a naysayer, just try to be accurate. But, I believe that the use of the symbols does go back many centuries and their power and significance is not to be ignored.

 

[Winter]

You are right in that the beautiful pictures we have are not really all that old, maybe a couple of centuries. (Look at the Kirkwall Scroll) But the practice of using the pictograms one on one as a tracing board is one of the oldest forms of learning by the initiate from the master. I just don't get the same feeling from a slide show.

 

[Duncan1574]

You are right in that the beautiful pictures we have are not really all that old, maybe a couple of centuries. (Look at the Kirkwall Scroll) But the practice of using the pictograms one on one as a tracing board is one of the oldest forms of learning by the initiate from the master. I just don't get the same feeling from a slide show.

[url]http://www.robertlomas.com/Orkney/scroll.html[/URL]

Winter, I agree. My Lodge uses a scroll for the FC lecture and slides for the EA, didn't like the slides as much, there is not the sense of antiquity about slides, but while standing next to the scroll or kneeling by an alter for the 1920s, I have connection with all the Brothers who have gone before me.

 

[Zack]

Just as a point of information;

there were Masonic glass slides and kerosene powered projectors back in the 18th century that were used for Masonic lectures

 

[Winter]

Those were a rare innovation. I've seen them. And while pretty, I put them in the same class as modern slides. I'd like to try a degree with actually drawing the symbols in chalk as I go.

 

[mdonahue66]

Now, first of all, I'd been listening on the sidelines for 30 years [I'm a slow learner!].
Second, we have an exact ritual, coded in the parts we do not write.
Third, Bobby W., my lecture coach is knowledgeable, "fluent," and an excellent teacher.
Each of the lectures runs about 8-10 pages in the ritual book. We would meet and he would teach me to "read" about 3 pages. I would then go home and after sitting with the book and "reading" each morning all of what we'd gone over, I would take the next 15-45 words to memorize that day. I would then practice the lecture as far as I'd learned in full, as least once each day.
Took me a year for all 3. So, about 4 months each.
I was expecting a year EACH.
I also found that after memorizing the day's lesson, if I practiced a small piece, i.e., a charge or the Apron Presentation, I could then see if I still had the day's lesson. This 'distraction' proved very valuable.

This help?

S&F

Yes, Thanks Bob. I was "attempting" to read through it in our cipher the other night, and it could certainly be years as I have a hard time practicing daily. For our "Question/Answer" lectures, or ritual work, I can just freshen up the week before given, but I think this would take an ongoing commitment, plus the commitment of someone to help, as I can only read about half of it in cipher without coaching.... I'll think this through before jumping into it. Thanks again.