Rounds On An Inside Bell

    The learner is ready to attempt Rounds on an inside bell once he has mastered leading and can reliably hear is own bell and correct any deviations from the correct rhythm.

   It should be stressed that the rhythm that applies to leading (slow handstroke, quick backstroke) also applies to ringing each of the other bells. This rhythm must pervade the whole of the ringing. With this in mind the learner will be able to fall into the basic rhythm quite easily.

   The main purpose of this exercise is to get the learner to be able to hear his bell amongst the others when it isn't a particularly prominent one. Thus it is advised that the learner has a try at each bell until he can not only hear that his bell is in the right place but also, should it wander off, whether he needs to ring quicker or slower. When something goes wrong ringers fall into either of two groups: those that speed up and those that slow down.

   As the learner rings different bells he should be made aware that the lightest bells ring to the balance and the heaviest don't. Learners can get the idea that because they were taught how to ring to the balance they must always do so. It is also worth adding some odd-struckness and getting the learner to deal with it.

   In order to develop the sense of the length of the delay between pulling a bell and its striking set the simulator to ring Rounds and, once they are going, get the learner to join in, judging when to pull off by listening to the simulated bells.

Back to the Using A Ringing Simulator index.