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4. Ropesight, listening and striking

Once you start to ring your bell with others you will learn how to put your bell in the right place. You need to know where in the row to ring your bell and develop the techniques to place it accurately in this place:

  • Listening – you need to be able to hear your bell in the row.
  • Ropesight – you need to be able to see which bell you are going to follow next in the row.
  • Rhythm – you need to develop a feeling for the rhythm of the row.

None of these skills can be learnt by reading a book and they develop over time. Some ringers find them easier to acquire than others. Like many skills in ringing they are best learned in small stages.

Your goal is to be able to produce rows that are evenly spaced with no “clips” or “gaps”. This is good striking.

Listening

You need to be able to hear your bell when ringing rounds. That is you should be able to pick out the bell you are ringing and where it is sounding in the row. You should listen to the rounds and to the position [place] your bell is sounding in and adjust it to ensure an even rhythm. You should count the place it is sounding in as you ring.

It is easier to hear your bell when ringing rounds as the sound is so simple and familiar. Moving on to ringing changes before you can hear your bell strike in rounds will make it very difficult for you to learn to hear your bell later on.

If you are not sure whether it is your bell which is sounding too close to another bell or is leaving a gap you can use a technique called “crash and gap”. You ring your bell closer to or further from the one in front until you hear a crash or a gap. This helps you identify which bell is yours.

Some towers have simulators; the sound is generated electronically and sounds in the ringing room through speakers. The bells are tied and no sound is heard outside. Using a simulator will help develop your listening skills and give feedback on your progress.

Ropesight

Ropesight is the ability to see in which position your rope is moving amongst the other ropes. You will learn to see which bell you are following and find which bell to follow next from the movement of the ropes. This video resource describes ropesight using a dynamic diagram of Plain Hunt on five bells.  You can then watch this being rung in a tower.

What is ropesight?

Ropesight takes time to develop and you will get better as your ringing progresses. Some ringers find it easier to acquire than others. Like many skills in ringing it is best learned in small stages.

The easiest way to start developing ropesight is by staying in the same place in the row – in call changes, kaleidoscope ringing or covering. You may find it easier initially to see the bells being followed when sitting out.

Covering allows you to develop ropesight by seeing bells change places below you. You will have started to do this when learning to ring call changes when two bells change places below you. You may not have been ringing the tenor. As you ring the tenor count the changes below you sounding your bell in your head in the last place of the change.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Again, if your tower has a simulator your teacher may give you an opportunity to ring the tenor on the simulator. This is good practice for developing rhythm on 6 bells.

Once you can ring the tenor rhythmically to rounds and call changes your teacher may move you on to covering to Plain Hunt and other methods.

You cannot learn ropesight by learning the numbers of the bells that you follow. When ringing the treble to methods (the next step) the treble rings the same line as in Plain Hunt but the order of the bells you strike over will vary in ways that you won’t be able to learn.

Watch this touch of Plain Bob Doubles, stood behind the treble and try and work out which bell the treble must follow next. The video plays through twice, once at full speed, once slowed down.  This video was created for the purposes of developing ropesight.

 
Rhythm and striking

Ringing good rounds will help you develop a sense of feel for the rhythm of the bells as will counting the bells as they sound. Always put an emphasis on the place you are ringing in. For example if you are ringing the 4 in rounds you would say to yourself:

1 2 3 4 5 6

Using words (sentences) may help you to get the feeling of the rhythm. Choose a sentence which has twice the number of syllables than the number of bells being rung. For instance on six you could choose “We all love fish and chips, I want some for my tea” or “I want to go to town, to buy some fish and chips”.

The rhythm of rounds

When you move on to Plain Hunt, your first aim is to learn the “feeling” of moving slowly up to the back, lying for two blows, ringing more quickly down to the front and then leading. After practice your body will learn this “feeling” or rhythm and know automatically when to change speed and how much to pull or check to make the bell ring at the required speed and strike in the right place.

Listening to your ringing will help you hear if there are gaps or clashes and then to adjust your blows to make the sound even and rhythmic. The hardest part to master is when the speed of ringing changes.

To develop the physical skill of hunting, to begin with you need to know which bells to follow. However, you should always count the place your bell is in the row rather than say the number of the bell you are following in your head.

You can practise counting your place when you are not ringing by watching another ringer; it is sometimes surprisingly difficult to count backwards when coming down to the lead.

Changing the speed of your bell

Once you can hear your bell, you can alter your ringing until the spaces between the bells all sound evenly.

If you need to ring more quickly

You need to ring below the balance so that the bell moves through a smaller arc. Slow or check the sally or backstroke so the bell does not rise as high. You may need to:

  • Check the sally and don’t let it rise so high at handstroke.
  • Take some rope in (shorten the tail-end) at backstroke.
  • Put more weight on the stroke to keep the bell up after you have checked the stroke.
If you need to ring more slowly

You need to ring at the balance so that the bell moves though a complete arc. Let the sally or backstroke rise to (or nearer) the balance. You may need to:

  • Put more weight into the previous stroke.
  • Let the sally rise a little higher at handstroke.
  • Let some rope out (lengthen the tail-end).