Ringing Ideas
for Lockdown
With no end to lock down in sight, with many of the
outstanding jobs in house and garden tackled and with the ringing withdrawal
symptoms getting worse here are a few suggestions for how guild ringers might
use this period of non-ringing ready for when we do get back into out towers.
You might think of it as a virtual training course:
you don't have to do any of it, and only the truly obsessive or the terminally
bored would attempt everything, but I hope there's at least one idea here to
interest you.
A few things you
might consider doing at home:
1) Learn a new method really
thoroughly; the blue line, including place bells (i.e. a lead at a time
from where each bell starts), the grid (i.e. a single lead written out with the
bell numbers), coursing orders, similarities and differences to other methods
you know.
As many will know, apps like Methodology and
Blue Line have a useful practice facility so you can tap the method out
on phone, tablet etc. but I think old-fashioned pen and paper still have a
place in learning a method securely. Drawing out the blue line and writing out
the grid on squared paper are both helpful.
There's a wealth of material available on how to
learn methods. This is a small selection of some that I, and others, have found
useful;
John Harrison's Learning Curve articles,
originally published weekly in the Ringing World but now available as booklets,
and more usefully in current circumstances online, cover all aspects of
learning including one on learning methods: here's the link.
https://archive.cccbr.org.uk/services/education/the-learning-curve/
For those in the
early stages of learning methods the ART (Association of Ringing
Teachers) Ringer's Guide to Learning the Ropes is excellent and, in
addition to basic ringing skills, covers from Plain Hunt to Plain Bob Minor
clearly and concisely. The ART site's mail order facility is temporarily closed
but I know some guild ringers already have their own copy.
I rate the
Whiting Society's wide range of booklets highly, though some might find the
forthright tone and the amount of detail a little off-putting. Persevere and
you will find the material they contain is extremely helpful.
Carry on
Counting and Doubles or
Quit both by Karl Grave will help with the difficulties of learning
your first method.
Plain Bob Minor
- A Mine of Information by
Anthony Bishop tells you more than you ever thought there was to know
about the method, including good advice on how to learn it.
For those with
more experience but still, as we all are, learning how to learn I recommend How
to Learn Methods by Michael Foulds and the series of booklets on
spliced treble bob and surprise minor (a Whiting Society speciality).
These and many
others can be bought online from:
www.whitingsociety.org.uk/publications/publications
Learning
Methods by Michael de
Henshaw is also very helpful but more difficult to obtain.
Getting it into your head is, of course, only half
the learning process and you can't at present do the other half of ringing it
in the tower, although, with the recent arrival of Ringing Room you may
now be able to do ringing at a distance as we are doing everything else.
2) Learn about an aspect of ringing theory you've
not considered before; for a newer ringer this might be something like
coursing order or getting to grips with the vocabulary of bell ringing, all those
puzzling terms you haven't had the time or opportunity to ask about but still
are not sure exactly what the mean - you could start your own ringing
vocabulary book.
The link below is to a list of ringing terms by
Alistair Donaldson who is a tutor on the Bradfield and Essex Ringing Courses.
http://www.donaldsonfamily.org.uk/coursenotes/General/Handouts/RingingTerminology.pdf
For those with a bit more experience place notation
(a shorthand way of defining a method) might be one of those aspects you know
of but don't know about in detail that would be worth studying.
Below is a link to the Central Council's useful
online booklet on place notation..
http://ringing.info/understandingPlaceNotation.pdf
3) Think about calling touches. We can't all be
great conductors but all method ringers can learn and call a few touches and
all call change ringers are capable of calling into Queen's or Tittums and back
to Rounds.
A comprehensive
and confidence-building book on this is Steve Coleman's Bob Caller's
Companion available from;
http://www.ringingbooks.co.uk/
Back issues of The
Ringing World from 1911 to 1970 and its predecessor Bell News (1881
to 1915), together with some earlier publications are freely available here:
https://cccbr.org.uk/resources/library/online-publications/
John Eisel's Church Bells of Breconshire is
the definitive work on the subject.
Steve Coleman's The Ringing in History Companion
gives an entertaining take on various subjects (see link above).
Nearer home, the current state of Paul Johnson's
collection of Newspaper Extracts on local bells and ringing, going back
to 1809, can be found here:
https://sbdgb.000webhostapp.com/extracts/
This is still very much 'work in progress'.
Finally if you have questions on any of this do
email or phone me, I may not know the answer but most probably can put you in
touch with someone else who does. I've also got training notes on some of the
topics I've mentioned which I can email on request.
Kath Johnson, Training Officer
email: kath.neuadd@gmail.com
Phone: 01874 658670