Method Toolboxes for teachers

5.1. How methods are written out

When someone starts to learn methods there is a host new theory to learn. They must also learn how methods are represented. Take time to introduce your student to the different ways of representing a method – what might work for you and have resonated in the past with others you have taught, might not work with someone else. The most common representations are:

• The blue line
• The circle of work
• The grid
• Place notation

Each of them contains the same information, just modelled in a different way. 

What does someone need to know?

More information about each of these representations can be found in Method Toolboxes for Ringers. Whichever method is preferred, a student needs to know:

• The order of work, or the line.
• Placebells – how do they start on each bell?
• Treble landmarks – where they pass the treble and where relative to the treble does the "work" happen (typically for their first methods this is at the lead end).
• What happens at a bob and/or single.

Learning the theory

This will be the first time that a learner can accelerate their progress by learning the theory outside of the tower. Such revision should be actively encouraged, and students should also be introduced to ringing software and smartphone apps which can help them consolidate their learning. The Birmingham School of Bell Ringing identified the use of such apps as a key factor in accelerating a ringer's progress in early method ringing.