Spin Your Pen in Fascinating Ways

First off, this is a pretty boring module, and you can skip to the next one if you want. It was the first one I wrote when I didn't feel like writing up a description of the fundamental tricks cause I was being lazy.

I imagine you have no idea what pen spinning is, so watch this video (not me, I'm not quite THAT good) before you read on. Pretty impressive, right? You probably came away from that with one of 2 impressions: "woooooooow" or "get a life, loser". If the 2nd, go ahead and leave now.
Now that you understand what pen spinning is, I'll have to warn you before you try to learn this: it's hard. The basic tricks will take anywhere from a couple minutes (pretty rare) to a couple of weeks to learn and the more advanced tricks can take months to learn. You're almost guaranteed to drop your pen the first time you try, but if you keep practicing, you will be able to. I can almost guarantee it.
Now we might actually cover something that my subtitle promised: why you should pen spin despite the difficulty.
#1 It will make your fingers incredibly dexterous. If you play an instrument, particularly the piano, you will likely notice that you can play faster and more skillfully because your fingers won't inhibit you. Also, if you play an instrument, your fingers will easily adapt to the motions required in pen spinning, and you may be able to learn tricks in minutes instead of days.
#2 It's impressive. If you've ever wanted to be able to impress people at will with something you'll likely always have on hand, then this is it.
#3 Bored in class? Surprisingly enough, classrooms often have pens in them. Go figure.
#4 Uh, winning bets?
Before we go into reading notation, I'd like to make it clear that while it's typical to use pens, and as such it's typically referred to as pen spinning, you can use a pencil too. In fact, it's recommended for a beginner to use a pencil because they're better than most pens. I say most pens because some rare pens are much longer and/or more balanced than pencils and are even better for pen spinning. Unfortunately, you probably won't be able to get your hands on one of these very easily (Many people make their own pens. This is called modding.)
The notation used for naming pen spinning combos (several individual tricks linked together in a smooth way) is relatively simple.
TS 1.5 > TA rev. > Backaround > Pass 12-23 > Sonic
The tricks are separated by a >, which can be typed by holding shift and hitting the period button on your keyboard. The first trick is Thumbspin 1.5. This means a thumbspin that does half a rotation on top of the thumb, which is added to the normal 1 rotation of the thumbaround, for a total of 1.5 rotations. If you're wondering what the difference between a thumbspin and a thumbaround is, it's simply that the thumbspin incorporates a spin on top of the thumb in the middle of the trick while the basic thumbaround doesn't. There's no limit to the number of rotations possible except your skill, so a TS 13.5 is possible and has been done before.
TS 1.5 > TA rev. > Backaround > Pass 12-23 > Sonic
The next trick is the TA rev., or Thumbaround Reverse. It's simply a thumbaround that goes clockwise (if you're looking at it from above) instead of counterclockwise around the thumb. It also has the same starting and ending positions as the normal TA, except they're flipped. What this means is that the TA ends in TA rev.'s starting position and vice-versa, so you can do TA > TA rev. indefinitely.
TS 1.5 > TA rev. > Backaround > Pass 12-23 > Sonic
The next is the backaround. There are no modifiers on it, so we'll skip to the next trick, Pass 12-23. This trick lists the starting and ending positions of the trick. The starting position is always listed first. 12 means between the index and middle fingers, and 23 means between the middle and ring fingers. The fingers are labeled as such: T - thumb, 1 - index finger, 2 - middle finger, 3 - ring finger, 4 - pinky. You write the position of the pen as the 2 fingers it is between.
TS 1.5 > TA rev. > Backaround > Pass 12-23 > Sonic
The last trick here is the sonic. You might think that we could pass over this in the same way we passed over the backaround, but actually there is something of interest here. The sonic here doesn't list it's starting or ending positions even though it has multiple possible ending positions. As such, we assume that it's a standard sonic that moves exactly one finger slot up the hand.
To move "up" the hand, you're moving the pen towards your index finger, and to move "down", you do the reverse, moving it towards the pinky finger. The terms rise and fall are similar, with rise corresponding to up and fall corresponding to down. However, a trick may only be called a rise or fall when it uses more than 1 trick to move all the way from the pinky to the index or from the index to the pinky. By far the most common use of the terms rise and fall are the simple sonic combos, sonic rise and sonic fall. Sonic rise is Sonic 34-23 > Sonic 23-12 and sonic fall is the reverse.
My next module will cover how to do the basic tricks.

These are the four basic tricks. I'll simply cover them in order from easiest to hardest. The picture shows the thumbaround starting position.
#1 Fingerpass
This trick is extremely basic but very important to learn as it can be used to move from any finger slot to any other finger slot. The entire trick fingerpass is 2 passes down the hand and 2 passes back up. A pass is basically moving the 2 fingers that are holding the pen in opposite directions which will cause the pen to turn diagonal towards the new finger slot. You'll then bring the finger that previously wasn't being used in the new finger slot down and under the pen. Then you bring that same finger back up, which pulls the pen into the new finger slot. The motion is kind of like crossing your fingers. It might sound complicated (because it's a lot easier to simply show you how to do this one), but it's really not very hard. To do the entire fingerpass, just repeat this same motion from the new finger slot into the next and so on. It's important to note that a proper fingerpass goes up the hand along the top of the hand and down the hand along the bottom. This means that your pen will spin one entire rotation around your middle finger, then one entire rotation around your ring finger, then another around the middle, then again around the ring, and so forth. I realize this could be confusing to someone who hasn't seen it before, so try this: put your pen inbetween your index and middle fingers (12) and cross your middle finger over your index. The pen will turn diagonal and turn clockwise. If you cross your index over your middle, it will turn counterclockwise. If you're doing the fingerpass right, your pen will keep turning the same direction during all 4 passes. You do NOT do 2 clockwise and then 2 counterclockwise passes in a fingerpass.
#2 Charge
This is a trick that won't move to a different slot but will instead simply spin in place. The basic charge is held in 23 (between the middle and ring fingers). You hold the pen about 2/5 of the way up the pen and your pen will be touching the last joint in both your fingers. Once you have it in this position, simply move your ring finger up and then down at a steady rhythm. Ideally, both ends of your pen will spin in a smooth circle, but I've never seen anyone capable of doing this smoothly on their first try. The trick should be done without moving your wrist or arm but it won't hurt to use your wrist to help keep the momentum and to help you get a feel for the motion required to make it spin. Once you can do it without moving your wrist, you should. This trick isn't very impressive with a normal pen but if you use brightly colored grips on the ends of a long pen with a dark body in a darkly lit room, it will look pretty surreal because you'll only be able to see the ends moving.
#3 Thumbaround
This trick is far more impressive than the last 2, but also much harder. You hold your pen inbetween your thumb, index, and middle fingers. The pad of the thumb should be touching the pen, not the tip. Your thumb should be touching the pen about 3/4 of the way up the pen. Your middle finger should be just above the middle of the pen. Your index finger should be just below the tip. Your thumb should be slightly closer to the index finger than the middle finger. After that you spin the pen counterclockwise around your thumb by pushing your pen with your middle finger. You should not move your wrist or your thumb while doing this. Your middle finger should move as if you were snapping your fingers. At the same time as you push the pen, you should extend your index finger to give the pen room to spin. The pen should spin around the thumb and land on the side of your middle finger. The instant it does this, your index finger should come back down and catch it between all 3 fingers used in the trick.
#4 Sonic
The main reason I rate this as the hardest basic trick is that the motion required can be very hard to grasp. The pen starts in 23 and ends up in 12. The same end that was pointing up at the beginning of the trick will be pointing up at the end. You basically move the ring finger up to make the pen move down towards your index finger. You then lift the index finger right before the pen hits it, and the end of the pen moves down the index finger. This causes the other end to spin and move into 12. The main way to learn the motion is to hold it in 23, but put the bottom end of the pen in the webbing between your thumb and index fingers. Then extend both the index and ring fingers, but not the middle finger. Build up pressure on the pen, and then let the pen go. The pen will either fly out of your hand (too much pressure) or do a sonic. After you can consistently do it by building up the pressure, try doing it by just moving your finger.
You will likely get frustrated if you can't do it or if you don't understand. If the first, remember that I said it would be hard, but I also said that I can almost guarantee you'll be able to do it. It's really NOT that hard with a bit of practice. If you don't understand, I'd advise using google, because many other people, many of whom were much better writers than me, have also written tutorials on this. There are also videos, which can show you how the trick is supposed to look.

These tricks are quite a bit harder than the first 4, but don't give up.
#1 Twisted Sonic
Twisted sonic is actually a mini combo made up 2 tricks: charge and a pass. The pen will spin 1 rotation in the charge and half a rotation in the pass for 1.5 total rotations. The pen will start in 23 and the end that's pointing towards your wrist should be angled towards your thumb. You can do this by raising your middle finger. The trick itself is actually pretty easy if you can do the individual tricks, but making it smooth can take a while. You simply do a charge which will slide into 12 after one rotation. You'll have to bend your index finger slightly to make it slide into 12. The instant it hits your index finger, bring your index finger back up. If you time this well, the pen will continue the charge motion in 12 for half a rotation, which is essential for doing a twisted sonic that looks smooth. Because this trick has 1.5 rotations, the opposite end of the pen will be sticking up after the trick.
#2 Infinity
This trick is named after the infinity symbol because when done correctly the end will trace a sideways 8 in the air over and over. To start, hold it from the tip of the pen between your thumb and index fingers with the opposite end of the pen pointing straight up. The pen should be touching the last joint of your index finger and should be touching the right side of the pad of your thumb. To start the pen moving, curl your index finger and move your hand down at the same time. This will cause the pen to slide through your fingers without moving to a different finger slot. After this, you will be holding it by the same end but the other end will be pointing down. This is called a wiper. Then you do a pass (like the fingerpass except it's slightly different) from T1-12. Then you do the same motion in 12 as you did in T1 to make the pen fall down again. Do a pass back to T1 by bringing the thumb under the pen and you'll be back at the starting position. You can then do the infinity again indefinitely. Don't worry about the shape it's tracing in the air. An infinity symbol won't appear until you can do it smoothly. Once you can do it smoothly, you can extend the infinity by doing a charge motion after the 1st pass but before the 2nd wiper. The resulting trick is called an extended infinity. You can also do longer infinities by doing another pass down to 23 after your first pass down to 12. To get back to T1 from 23, you'll need to lift your middle finger up and bring the ring and index fingers together, allowing it to slide from 23-12. Then you finish it like an extended infinity by doing a charge in 12 and then a wiper and pass back to T1. It's also possible to go down to 34 or even 4T (bringing your thumb down to create another finger slot between your thumb and pinky) with your infinities.
#3 Sonic Reverse
This is essentially doing the exact same thing as the normal sonic except you'll be traveling from 12-23 or 23-34. The main reason this is hard is because in the normal sonic your index or middle finger will come up to deflect the pen. In the reverse, you'll be using the ring or pinky finger, which are much less flexible. If you can do a Sonic easily, then this trick will just require some practice before you'll be able to do it. Once you can, the combo Sonic > Sonic Rev. can be done indefinitely, which is somewhat impressive but can get old really fast. A much more impressive combo would be Sonic Rise > Sonic Fall, particularly if you could do it quickly.
#4 TA Reverse
Unlike the Sonic Rev., this trick requires a completely different motion from the regular TA. To start the trick, hold the pen at the end position of TA (pen resting on index and middle fingers). You need to push the pen with your index finger to make the pen spin back around. You'll essentially be curling it in towards your first thumb joint. By curling it, your index finger should push it and move out of the way of the pen at the same time. After spinning around the thumb, the pen should fly into 23 and your thumb should snap down on the end to hold it there. From there, you can do a normal TA again, allowing you to do TA > TA rev. indefinitely.

#1 Backaround
This trick moves from a position that is similar to the basic writing position to a position identical to the end of the TA rev. The only difference in the starting position from the basic writing position is that it's held 2/3 of the way up the pen. 2/3 of the pen will be outside your hand pointing the same direction as your thumb, and the other 1/3 will be in between your index knuckle and your thumb. Your fingers should be curved around the pen. The pen will spin around your index finger between the knuckle and the 2nd joint. You start the motion by simultaneously opening your hand slightly to give the pen room to spin and moving your hand upwards about an inch. Opening your hand should involve straightening out your index finger and moving your thumb to the left. When the pen is perpendicular with your fingers, you move your hand back down and curl your index finger slightly, which should make the pen spin around the index finger and land in between the middle and index fingers and may also rest on your thumb (though it is relatively easy to do the backaround without using your thumb).
#2 Shadow
You should learn charge in 12 before even attempting this. The pen starts in between the index and middle fingers, with the pen pointing almost straight up but slightly to the right (assuming you're doing it with your right hand). You begin it by doing a charge motion for almost a full rotation. After about 3/4 of a rotation, you bring the end of your index finger down, which allows the bottom end of the pen to swing on top of it. The momentum from the charge will allow it to keep spinning on top of your hand. You then lift your index finger high enough that the pen falls back into 12 (index-middle) after doing half a spin on top of your hand. The starting and ending positions are identical. If you practice enough, you can start or end a shadow from any finger slot (except that a shadow can't be started in t1, though it can end there)