Learning Tips

“Which bell do I follow?” is often asked during call changes. This is probably because conventional calling methods focus on bell number, but variations of call changes can be rung to shift the focus from which bell to follow to developing the skills required for Plain Hunt and methods: bell control, place awareness, counting, rhythm, listening and ropesight. They can involve ringers of all abilities, add interest and great fun to your ringing, and can sound great too. Here are some quirky ideas.

Note: n = number of bells.

Switch calling method. If you normally call up in your tower, call down for a change to get ringers thinking about what is happening. It could also help them when they visit other towers where they may call differently.

Call by ringer’s name instead of bell number. At Christmas inject some fun with silly seasonal nicknames, resulting in hilarious calls, e.g. ‘Baubles to Rudolf ’.

Quiz ringers during ringing to develop ropesight and awareness of where other bells are in the change. e.g. ‘Which place are you in?’, ‘Who is following you?’, ‘Who is 2 places in front of you?’, ‘Who is leading?’, etc.

Call by place instead of bell number. All the ringers need to know which place they are in and are encouraged to use listening skills to work that out and ropesight to find who they are following. Calling by place in a Plain Hunt sequence, then writing it out on the board, can be a useful way to explain how place notation works.

Conduct by place. Whichever calling method is used, helping a ringer by telling them which place to ring in rather than who/which bell to follow should encourage them to listen and look at the whole change rather than just following one bell.

Facing outwards from the rope circle should encourage ringers to count and listen to their striking and place. Initially try just one or two facing outwards at a time, then involve more of the band. As they should be counting places and listening rather than looking at a bell to follow, call and conduct the call changes by place.

Call to move at backstroke to introduce changing speed at backstroke.

Dodgy call changes: At each call, the pair of bells affected dodge into place i.e. they swap over at handstroke, swap back to the original change at backstroke, then swap again at handstroke (into where they would be if it was a normal call change) and remain in that place.

Rounds and crosses: From rounds, call pairs of bells to swap and call that change ‘crosses’. Alternately call rounds and crosses at intervals, then speed up the calling frequency to places (swapping every whole pull). Finally ring crosses at handstrokes and rounds at backstokes so that everyone is dodging.

Kaleidoscope exercises such as continuous dodging mixed with call changes enables different skills to be practised at the same time.

Give those sitting out a ‘biscuit tin lid’: Take a metal tin of biscuits up the tower to share! Inside the lid stick a circle of places and add magnetic numbers (see photograph). Ask those sitting out to follow the changes by moving the magnets correctly at each call, checking that they get back to rounds at the same time as the bells. Then ask them to use the biscuit tin lid to work out and call their own changes whilst sat out. As a challenge give them a specific change to aim for. When they no longer need the biscuit tin lid to work out what to call, let them call when sat out. Young ringers, including those still working on bell handling, are often good at this and it can keep them involved.

‘Judging’ call changes when sat out. Ask them to listen to the striking and suggest how it can be improved.

‘Rhubarb’ call changes: Each ringer in turn calls out one call change. The only rule is that they do not call the reverse of the previous call.

‘Morden’ call changes: Each ringer in turn calls themselves from lead out to the back (or n-1). This can start from rounds or, for a challenge, from another change, e.g. Queens. Also try calling from the back down to lead.

Pull off in a different change. Ask each ringer to draw a (playing) card numbered 1 to n (or n-1 if you want to keep the tenor at the back). The number drawn is the place that they ring in when they pull-off. To make it harder each ringer does not disclose their place before pulling off. Challenge a ringer to call it back into rounds.

Jump changes into any change, e.g. from Rounds to Queens, for place awareness and bell control.

Whole pull and stand for bell control. The tenor keeps ringing throughout and all of the other bells alternately ring a whole pull then wait on the balance for a whole pull. This can sound mournful so could be ideal for funerals and Remembrance Sunday, especially when half-muffled.

Rounds and reverse rounds. To go from rounds to reverse rounds the tenor keeps ringing at the same speed, the n-1 holds up and waits on the balance for the tenor, the n-2 waits even longer for the n-1, etc. From reverse rounds to rounds the treble does not change speed.

Firing and cross-firing. To be allowed to clash your bell on purpose can be rather enjoyable! And it may be easier to hear if your striking is spot on when ringing at exactly the same time as another bell. For cross-firing (on an even number of bells), go from Queens, then all of the odd bells fire on n-1 and the evens fire on the tenor.

Sonic mapping, where bells are called to ring in various creative chords can be fantastic on higher numbers.

For 6 bells consider Twinkle Twinkle or Cambridge chimes, particularly with young ringers, as fun ways to practice holding on the balance at handstroke and backstroke.

Combine some of these call change variations to make it more challenging and interesting, e.g. dodgy Morden call changes, rhubarb Christmas name call changes or a mixture of jump changes, whole pull and stand and firing.

Quirky call changes are inclusive, useful and fun and could be used in any tower to great effect.

Susan Hall, Old Brampton, Derbyshire