BEYOND
MINOR - STRIKING 8 BELLS
In order to progress beyond the simpler methods it is essential
to be able to hear your own bell and adjust your striking accordingly. This
point can't be stressed too much. There are two reasons why we should work on
listening and striking at this point:
*
If your bell is in the right place you'll properly see your position and
so the method will be easier to ring.
*
It sounds better.
A FEW BASIC NUMBERS
Roughly
speaking ringing progresses at about 25 - 35 changes per minute, typically 30
per minute. This means that each change takes around 2 seconds. For ringing on 6
bells this gives the following approximate facts for perfect ringing:
1.
The sounds of each bell are separated by 1/3 second.
2.
Any one bell can be up to 1/3 second quick or slow before a clash occurs,
giving a 2/3 second "slot".
3.
A consistent error will accumulate over the 5 blows it takes to hunt from
front to back or vice versa.
For
ringing on 6 bells we have the following:
1.
The sounds of each bell are separated by 1/4 second.
2.
Any one bell can be up to 1/4 second quick or slow before a clash occurs,
giving a half second "slot".
3.
A consistent error will accumulate over the 7 blows it takes to hunt from
front to back or vice versa.
From
this we can see that on 8 bells the slot into which your bell must fit is 25%
smaller on 8 bells than on 6 bells. This means that the ringer's aim has to be
25% more accurate. But it isn't quite as simple as this because the way any blow
is rung has some dependence on how the previous blow was rung. Thus the blow
following a quick blow must be slower blow than it otherwise would have been.
There
are two types of striking errors: "sporadic" and
"consistent", with consistent errors falling into two subgroups -
"accumulating" and "non-accumulating". Sporadic errors are
random variations in the speed of occasional blows and can usually be explained
away by claiming that the bell isn't working properly. Consistent errors are
those where a ringer is always too quick or too slow at either handstroke or
backstroke, is always too quick over big bells or never changes speed enough etc..
Many
learners have consistent errors. Some are always too quick and some are always
too slow. Most learners ring too quickly when hunting up and too slowly when
hunting down and these errors tend to accumulate. So, a learner who leads
correctly will be ringing too quickly after hunting up but will be ringing
correctly again after hunting down.
For
instance for a ringer accurately leading and about to hunt up, a consistent
error of 1/15 second too quick when moving up one place will accumulate to 5/15
second too quick by the time the bell has moved 5 places to reach 6th's place.
Thus the bell will now be 5/15 (1/3) second early and will really have only
reached 5th's place but may get away with it in many towers. In other words the
maximum consistent error on 6 bells that allows the ringer to stay within the
slot is +/- 1/15 second.
Similarly,
for the same ringer and consistent 1/15 second error on 8 bells the bell will
have accumulated 7/15 second error, i.e. almost 1/2 second error, by the time it
has moved 7 places and 8th's place is "reached". On 8 bells a 1/2
second error is two whole places and so the error which was just acceptable (in
many towers) on 6 bells is now, hopefully, quite unacceptable on 8 bells. In
fact, the maximum consistent error allowed for a ringer to stay within the slot
is 1/4 second divided by 7, which is 1/28 second.
The
purpose of this comparison is to show that in order to ring 8 bells
successfully, striking errors have to be reduced otherwise when hunting from
front to back they will accumulate to such an extent that the ringer can be two
places, either early or late, in error. Errors of this size make it impossible
for learners to see where they are and they find they cannot ring the method.
The
result of all this is that there is no point whatever in a ringer trying to ring
on 8 bells until that ringer's consistent error is less than 1/28 second, and in
order to achieve this the ringer must learn to ring to some basic rhythms and to
listen to his own bell.
THE
STRIKING OF TRIPLES
For the learner moving up to Triples from Doubles and Minor, the
successful ringing of Triples methods depends on getting the striking right. The
move from "even bell" methods (6, 8, 10...) to "odd bell"
methods (5, 7, 9...) causes problems because the dodges in (the simpler) even
bell methods all take place at backstroke whereas those in odd bell methods take
place at handstroke. Also, the move from ringing on 6 bells to ringing on 8
bells requires a huge increase in striking accuracy.
LEADING
It is usually considered desirable to leave a gap between the last blow
of a backstroke and the first blow of the next handstroke. This "handstroke
gap" can vary in size from band to band at their discretion but typically
it is big enough to contain one extra bell. The main things about this gap are
that everyone agrees what the gap should be and each ringer leaves the same gap
every time. Also, the handstroke gap on 8 bells is generally slightly smaller
than that on 6 bells, so when moving from 6 to 8-bell ringing a new rhythm has
to be learned. Not only that but 8 bells are often rung slightly more slowly
than 6.
It is essential to develop a sense of the rhythm of correct leading. In
particular, most learners don't leave a big enough gap and when they can be
cajoled into slowing down and doing so their backstrokes become slow because
they bring them down the same time after the handstroke as before.
The skill here is to treat handstroke and backstroke as independent
strokes. Many learners treat the backstroke as a means of just getting back to
handstroke. It isn't; it's just as important to place the backstroke as it is
the handstroke. Once the skill of placing each stroke is acquired it is then
necessary to learn to feel the difference between handstroke and backstroke.
Once good leading skills are acquired it is important to realise that all
the other bells will, in Rounds, ring to exactly the same rhythm - slower
handstrokes and quicker backstrokes. Of course it's perfectly possible to
develop the correct rhythm on an inside bell and then transfer it to leading.
Either way it is important for the learner to ensure that the decision on
whether the ringing is good or bad is based on the sound and not what it looks
like. If a particular bell is "odd-struck" (rings at the wrong part of
its rotation) then the feel of the rhythm must be changed in order to get the
sound right
HUNTING.
The need to further develop the sense of rhythm from that required for
acceptable ringing on 6 bells to the much more accurate sense required for
ringing on 8 bells will show itself when hunting. Sporadic errors sound much
worse and consistent errors will accumulate into much bigger errors than on 6
bells. The amount by which a bell must be slowed down or speeded up is less than
on 6 bells and so this difference must be learned.
The main problem that a learner faces when hunting up on higher numbers
is that they don't ring slowly enough to actually reach 7th's or 8th's place.
This is because of a consistent error. They've probably been getting away with
only just reaching 6th's place on 6 bells and now this error accumulates for
another 2 blows. The slowness of 8 bells means that the backstrokes in
particular must be carefully held up and placed.
When hunting down the learner faces the opposite problem. They generally
ring too slowly, with an accumulating error, and get left behind. Once again it
is usually the backstroke that causes the problem, by being too slow. Even
though 8-bell ringing is slightly slower than 6-bell ringing the backstrokes
still need to be "tucked in" when hunting down, especially when
ringing bigger bells.
LYING, MAKING PLACES AND WRONG LEADS
For those coming to Triples from Doubles (assuming that the Doubles was
good Doubles) then lying should pose little difficulty but for those who are
more used to Minor then lying behind will cause problems. When lying in 6th's
place the bell strikes in 6th's at handstroke and then backstroke and the whole
things has exactly the same feel as Rounds. Not so when lying in 7th's place.
When a bell is hunted up to 7th's place it gets there at backstroke.
Assuming that the learner's backstrokes when hunting up are reasonable well
placed then this first blow in 7th's place will turn out as it should. The
difficulty is the second blow in 7th's at handstroke. The learner gets so used
to a rhythm of a slow blow followed by a quick blow when leading or making 2nd's
in Plain Bob (handstroke plus gap then backstroke) that they do the same when
lying in 7th's. They ring the handstroke in 7th's place far too quickly. In fact
this handstroke should feel exactly like any handstroke lead should feel -
slower to allow for the handstroke gap.
It is important to get this right because otherwise the hunting down gets
off to a bad start with the ringer ringing to quickly for several blows.
In Grandsire the making of 3rd's place is also done at backstroke and
then handstroke. This means that all the above equally applies to the making of
3rd's, either ordinary 3rd's or the 3rd's or long 3rd's at calls.
Stedman has several places where 3rd's is made. Sometimes this is done at
handstroke and then backstroke, in which case there should be little difficulty,
but at other times it is done at backstroke then handstroke. Once again care
must be taken when the second blow in 3rd's is at handstroke.
When a place is made at handstroke then backstroke the place is said to
be "made right" or a "right place" and when it is made at
backstroke then handstroke it is said to be "made wrong" or a
"wrong place".
Some of the leads in Stedman are made at backstroke the handstroke and
are thus "wrong leads". Once again the handstroke must be carefully
placed and in this case don't forget the handstroke gap. At first it feels very
odd to leave a gap in the middle of a full lead instead of at the start but it
must be understood that the gap is always at handstroke and not the start of the
lead. The corollary to this is that there mustn't be any backstroke gap at the
start of a wrong lead.
DODGING
Just as we can have right and wrong places we can also have right and
wrong dodges. Triples is full of wrong dodges. In right dodges we have:
*
right up dodges - slow handstrokes and quick backstrokes.
*
right down dodges - quick handstrokes and slow backstrokes.
In other
words the dodge is a temporary change of direction at backstroke before
the handstroke resumes the hunting. In wrong dodges we have:
*
wrong up dodges - slow backstrokes and quick handstrokes.
*
wrong down dodges - quick backstrokes and slow handstrokes.
In other
words the dodge is a temporary change of direction a handstroke before
the backstroke resumes the hunting. This means that, since handstrokes are
always slower than backstrokes, the handstroke of a wrong down dodge must be
held up more than the backstroke of a right down dodge and the handstroke of a
wrong up dodge must be pulled in less than the backstroke of a right up dodge.
Care
must be taken when doing multiple dodges that any accumulating errors are
eliminated. Many learners will dodge a bit too quickly and then recover once the
dodge is done. If, however, they are doing several dodges their accumulating
errors will rapidly result in them getting completely lost.
SUMMARY
There seems to be a lot here to learn but it can all be summarised as
follows:
*
A handstroke will always be rung more slowly than an equivalent
backstroke.
*
The handstroke gap is for everybody, not just the ringer who is leading.
*
The ringer should learn to listen not only to his own bell but to the
whole change and recognize and correct consistent errors.
*
There are actually only 3 speeds of ringing, these being slightly slower
for handstroke than backstroke:
*
Rounds speed,
*
Hunting up speed,
*
Hunting down speed.
Once these three speeds are mastered then there is nothing more to do other than keep in practice. In these days of simulators it is a very good idea to use one to practice just listening and learning to feel the rhythm. Before simulators the same could be achieved only by ringing many tens of peals or quarter peals.
THE
STRIKING OF MAJOR AND ABOVE
The striking and rhythms of Major and hence Royal and Maximus are very
similar to those of Minor with the exceptions that with more and often bigger
bells the whole thing is slower than on 6 and the size of the handstroke gap is
reduced to keep it just big enough for one bell to fit. This latter point means
that the difference between the speeds of the handstroke and backstroke are
reduced, although not eliminated. In particular, on 8 it is still quite
significant and even on 10 and 12 it must be carefully observed.
The points about right and wrong dodges and places remain valid on higher
numbers and once methods such as London or Bristol are encountered the ringer
will find wrong places and dodges there even though these are even bell methods.
Not only that but there is also "wrong hunting" where odd bells hunt
in and even bells hunt out. It is likely, although not certain, that ringers who
reach the Surprise Major and above stages will be able to work out the striking
and rhythms for themselves.
The table below summarises the accuracy required for adequate (but not
good) ringing on different numbers. It assumes 30 changes per minute although on
12 bells 25 changes per minute is more common:
6 Bells
8 Bells
10 Bells
12 Bells
Gap
Between Bells 1/3sec
1/4sec
1/5sec
1/6sec
Size
Of "Slot"
2/3sec
1/2sec
2/5sec
1/3sec
Maximum
Sporadic Error (+/-)
1/3sec
1/4sec
1/5sec
1/6sec
Maximum
accumulated error 1/15sec
1/28sec
1/45sec 1/66sec
These accuracies are not only achievable but they are the minimum requirement for adequate ringing. Every ringer should try to exceed these values. All it takes is a bit of listening and lots of practice
Back to the Articles index.