I’ve never had the need to be very fine in detail, but I’ve always treated it a an ordered set (much like the numeric values that Benquo suggested, except without as much memorizing). Then I would compare the letter I want with M (being the 13th element, it serves as a useful midpoint), to decide if the element belongs to the first half or the second.
I suppose that doing something similar with the (6th or 7th) letter, and the (19th or 20th) letters could tell you what quadrant of the Alphabet space you were in. So if it comes before F, between F and M, between M and U, or after U, you can focus your attention there. That takes more analysis, but if you are normal in your memorization methods, maybe keeping the alphabet in chunks of 5 to 7 elements could really help your memorization.
Or you could be like Derren Brown, and just use a mnemonic to tie the letters to numbers… searching… he calls them peg words. I use it when jogging to keep track of distance, and he seems to have a way to memorize 52 elements, which could make 26 elements seem pretty trivial.
If you know the alphabet song, the melody naturally (at least to me) separates the alphabet into a few groups: ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP QRS TUV WX YZ. This may be easier than memorizing divisions.
Although that’s not the only way to divide up the ABCs to sing it to the melody of Baa Baa Black Sheep. You can also do abcd efg hijk lmn opq rst uvw xyz. Took me ages to figure that out after I learned how to sing the alphabet backwards and realized that backwards there was no rushing part.
the melody naturally (at least to me) separates the alphabet into a few groups
It’s not just you! (And FWIW, it’s actually the rhythm: with the exception of W-X, the last letter of each group is held for at least twice as long as any of the others—four times in the case of LMNO-P.)
I’ve never had the need to be very fine in detail, but I’ve always treated it a an ordered set (much like the numeric values that Benquo suggested, except without as much memorizing). Then I would compare the letter I want with M (being the 13th element, it serves as a useful midpoint), to decide if the element belongs to the first half or the second.
I suppose that doing something similar with the (6th or 7th) letter, and the (19th or 20th) letters could tell you what quadrant of the Alphabet space you were in. So if it comes before F, between F and M, between M and U, or after U, you can focus your attention there. That takes more analysis, but if you are normal in your memorization methods, maybe keeping the alphabet in chunks of 5 to 7 elements could really help your memorization.
Or you could be like Derren Brown, and just use a mnemonic to tie the letters to numbers… searching… he calls them peg words. I use it when jogging to keep track of distance, and he seems to have a way to memorize 52 elements, which could make 26 elements seem pretty trivial.
If you know the alphabet song, the melody naturally (at least to me) separates the alphabet into a few groups: ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP QRS TUV WX YZ. This may be easier than memorizing divisions.
Today I learnt that the two alphabet songs I was taught in age 7 pre-English aren’t at all what American kids learn.
(For the record, the slower one went: ABCDEFG HIJKLMN OPQRSTUV WXYZ, while the faster one was: ABCDE FGHIJ KLMNO PQRST UVWXYZ.)
And now you know what jokes about the letter “elemenopee” are referring to.
Although that’s not the only way to divide up the ABCs to sing it to the melody of Baa Baa Black Sheep. You can also do abcd efg hijk lmn opq rst uvw xyz. Took me ages to figure that out after I learned how to sing the alphabet backwards and realized that backwards there was no rushing part.
The alphabet song I learned (and Elizabeth is probably referring to) is to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star”.
It’s not just you! (And FWIW, it’s actually the rhythm: with the exception of W-X, the last letter of each group is held for at least twice as long as any of the others—four times in the case of LMNO-P.)
Even W-X is no exception, if you count syllable length instead of letter length.