What is Ringing?
What is a Method?
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Email: penny@penny.id.au
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What is a method? |
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A method is a certain combination of ringing the bells. A method is made up of many changes (an ordering of the bells
where each bell rings once only). Some changes with names are:
12345678 - Rounds 13572468 - Queens 15263748 - Tittums 87654321 - Reverse Rounds The aim of method-ringing is to produce nicely-struck ringing (that is, the bells strike with exactly the same rhythmic spacing between them), preferably using musical-sounding changes. A change may not be repeated in any piece of ringing, apart from rounds which occurs at the beginning and end of the ringing. Sounding a little dry? Don't worry - new ringers are generally taught these concepts over a period of months, while they are still learning how to handle a bell without needing supervision. If a ringer needs to learn a new method, the first thing he/she does is turn to the appropriate page in their Bellringer's Diary. So, for example, if I needed to learn Cambridge Major (a standard method) for a practice, I would have a look at this diagram:  At first glance, the diagram seems daunting. However, in order to ring the method, I wouldn't need to learn all the columns of figures. In fact, all I would need to learn is the blue line (which happens to be a thick black line in this diagram). It still looks quite complicated, though. That's why we start our learners on the simplest method of them all - Plain Hunt. Here is the diagram for Plain Hunt on 5:  Note that the ringing starts and ends with rounds, and that reverse rounds occurs halfway through. This applies to plain hunt on any number of bells. |