Remembering the cards that have been played and the ones that are held is something that many bridge and card players have a knack for. 

It’s often impressive, and holds a resemblance to the memory demonstration where the participant recalls a terrifying list of objects they memorized right there on the spot. We’ve all seen it.

What I’ve come to learn about this impressive demonstration of brain power is that it’s usually not a born skill. It’s not even a particularly difficult one. It’s a developed skill, and it’s one that I would encourage all bridge players to experiment with over time.

How do you keep track of 52 or more cards that have been played in a specific order? 

While memory palaces can answer this question, there might also be an answer to be found in setting the card deck to music.

Why Add Music to the Deck?

Association is a pretty powerful thing.

The same can be said about music.

Songs connect us to memories, and memories connect us to remembering things better.

Do you remember what songs were playing during the most monumental moments of your life? For people who do, using music to remember the cards might be a far more effective recall technique than the traditional idea of a memory palace.

If you have an easier time remembering your music playlist than the order of the cards, it might be time to add music to the deck.

Associate Your Suits

First, let’s look at the deck as a broader whole. Before we talk about the idea of remembering 52 songs or cards in a row, what we have is 4 suits. That’s much simpler, but still part of the bigger picture, and much easier to remember.

Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs.

What are they to YOU? 

Suits can be genres, or suits can be artists, albums or phases in your music taste. 

Let’s say rock music. 

Not just rock, but four different types of rock music. 

(1) Spades – Heavy Metal

(2) Hearts – Hair Metal 

(3) Diamonds – Folk Rock

(4) Clubs – Classic Rock

(And don’t judge! These are for example purposes… And as long as the association jogs your memory, you can choose anything.) 

Associate Your Royals

Within your association of the suits, find the next one: who are going to be the court cards? Who are the royals of your genre, or the songs that stand out from these genres first?

That’s the A, K, Q and J for your musical deck.

And remember, you’ll be pretty excited when you see these in your deck. Pick songs that make you feel the same.

Off the top of my head, let’s choose Spades.

Next, let’s say Spades as Heavy Metal becomes four musician. 

Lemmy as the Ace; Ozzy as the King; Lita Ford is the Queen and, well, let’s say Randy Rhoads as the Jack for the point of this example here.

Easier, right?

Finding Your 52 Songs

Once the basic associations between the card deck and your music collection have been made, you’re free to associate the rest of your deck any way you like. Use songs, use albums, use artists, use feeling in your memory that can help you to better remember the entire deck.