Time and time again I hear people say they want to learn card magic. I know I am as guilty as most, I frequently recommend Erdenase or Royal Road to Card Magic. These are fantastic books and a great place to learn from. What we often neglect to do is recommend what to start off by learning. There are many good self working effects out there that are good for any magician to start with. But what sleights would you recommend.

Here are my suggestions about what I would suggest.

1. Overhand shuffle and mechanics grip. This may appear easy but it is about learning to do everything consistently.it is no good holding the cards differently for each sleight or flourish you perform, so start with mastering the basics. 

2. Under cut and false undercut. Again it is about consistency and from these moves you will start learning more.

3. Controlling cards from top to bottom and bottom to top using under cut. A natural progression fro
 The true and false under cut. This gives yo confidence handling the card and you start learning some basic concepts of sleight of hand. 

4. DL. This is a fantastic sleight that is in my opinion one of the best for all beginners to learn. It opens the door to numerous effects and makes you more aware of presentation. 

You are now on your way and adding a couple of forces to your arsenal is a great idea. Then you have a nice group of skills that will work together and the necessary skills to perform numerous effects and start looking at putting a couple of effects into a performance/routine. By looking foe effects to learn you will naturally come across new sleights to learn. Here are a few more to move onto,
Glide,
Hindu Shuffle and force
Riffle shuffle etc. 

You will find Erdenase and Royal Road to Card Magic great for learning these sleights and other at a latter date. If you can only afford one I would say go for Royal Road to Card Magic.
To learn new effects I would initially use Encyclopedia of card tricks and Expert at the Card Table. The latter is a must if you want to develop your skills quickly.

There are Dvd's to go with Erdenase and Royal Road To Card magic. These can be expensive and recieved mixed reviews. If you want a few effects up your sleeve and would like to use DVD to learn the new direct download from magicworld.co.uk looks a great value buy. 

Nic