The Whiting Society of Ringers A Bit of Elementary Change Ringing Theory for Students of Doubles Michael Foulds This document is provided by The Whiting Society of Ringers For further information and items of possible interest, visit our Website www.whitingsociety.org.uk
Introduction This handout summarises the theoretical sessions from the course, and should obviate the need for taking notes. Change ringing theory is a branch of mathematics. Not everyone likes mathematics. Some do. It can be really interesting, in its own right, quite divorced from practical ringing. You might think this is pretty pointless. You might be right. But it s no more pointless than doing crossword puzzles, so if you find yourself getting interested in scribbling bits of methods on squared paper, don t feel you have to see a psychiatrist. I encourage it, in fact. But what if this stuff doesn t turn you on? You just want to ring. Fair enough. I think, though, that whatever you try to achieve on a practical level, you re better building that practical skill on a sound foundation of understanding the underlying principles. So do take what you can from it. At the risk of causing some little offence, I will pontificate for a moment. Some skills in ringing can be learned only by practical experience. Bell handling skills, ropesight and listening skills can be learned only in the tower, but methods are learned at home. It is a waste of your time (and everyone else s!) to be trying to ring things you have not learned. Once you can handle a bell well, and can hunt, and dodge competently, and can see and hear your way around, the next stage to becoming a competent change ringer with a repertoire of methods involves a lot of learning - rote learning - t is no other way. T is a whole host of ringers out t who were struggling with Doubles three years ago, are struggling with Doubles now, and will be struggling with Doubles in three year s time. We call them learners. I don t know why, because the characteristic they share is that they never learn anything. They are seemingly waiting for the angel Gabriel to visit them in a dream and implant Kent Treble. Please get real. If you want to be a good ringer, you have to put in the homework. Yes, it s a nice social activity going out ringing, and going to the pub afterwards; but many learners would benefit from less ringing and more study. In the Beginning Up to about 600, bells were swung by means of levers, or half wheels, and couldn t be rung full circle. So they couldn t be held on balance and made to ring at different speeds. Any kind of change ringing as we know it today would have been impossible. The development of change ringing followed quickly upon the heels of the evolution of modern bell-hanging. I guess it grew out of a desire by the ringers to break the monotony of ringing the bells in the same sequence time after time. Initially, change ringing began on small numbers of bells - three or four - and it is perhaps understandable that ringers tried to figure out ways of producing all the possible sequences (we call them rows) without repeating any. Again, it is natural that they would try to change as much as possible from one row to the next - that is to make each row as unlike the previous one as possible. A serious practical constraint is that bells are heavy. Although full circle hanging allows some control of speed, the variation possible is limited by the inertia of the rotating bell, and the convention developed that a bell could move only one place between one row and the succeeding row. So we have some ground rules developing which for a framework for all change ringing (not just Doubles!), and it might be helpful to summarise them:- We want to obtain all the rows possible (or all we have time to ring if on more than five bells!), without repeating any, normally starting and ending with rounds. We don t want any bell to move more than one place between one row and the next. Page
Subject to the above, we want as many bells to move, or change, as possible, and to avoid one bell staying in one place for more than four successive rows, or even better, no more than two successive rows. Now let s look at some possibilities within these constraints. We ll play about with four bells, but we would arrive at similar conclusions with, or more. In the diagram on the left we ve moved one place in from nd place to st place, which means we can either move from st place to nd place, or from rd place to nd place, to replace it. Looking at the second option, we can see it doesn t work as it leaves to move all the way from st place to rd place - a jump of places and hence an illegal move. Similarly, on the right, we ve moved, and each one place up, which seems all right, but now we have to move down three places to fill the gap. What we learn is that in all change ringing, bells must change in pairs, one moving one place up, and the other moving one place down to make room for it and replace it, as illustrated on the left, w we ve changed both pairs. That s an encouraging start, so let s see what happens if we continue changing both pairs (right). Oh dear! We ve already got back to rounds and clearly if we keep doing this we re just going to keep repeating the last row but one. So we ve learned a couple more ground rules, which follow from the ones on the previous page. Bells can only change in pairs, one moving one place up, and the other moving one place down. It follows from this that on an odd number of bells, at least one bell must always stay in the same place (we call this making a place) between each row and the next. We can t have all the same pairs changing twice in succession. It follows from this that on an even number of bells, we must have at least two bells staying in the same place (making places) at least at every other change. By the way, when one pair of bells changes between one row and the next, we call that a single change. If two pairs change, we call that a double change, three pairs, a triple change, and so on. Doubles is called Doubles because it consists (mostly!) of double changes. The Extent A piece of ringing consisting of all the possible rows on a given number of bells is called an extent. The number of permutations possible on n bells is n factorial, usually written as n!, which means n multiplied by all the whole numbers below n, down to. For example:- On bells, t are x x = 6 possible different sequences or rows On bells, t are x x x = possible different sequences or rows On bells, t are x x x x = 0 possible different sequences or rows These extents take only a few minutes to ring, so it s unusual to ring shorter lengths on five bells or fewer. On 6 bells, t are 6 x x x x x = 70 possible different rows. This takes about minutes to ring, so it s common to ring shorter lengths, or touches. On 7 bells, t are 7 x 6 x x x x x =,00 possible different rows. This takes about ½ to ½ hours to ring and is the length of a full peal. On 8 bells, t are 8 x 7 x 6 x x x x x = 0,0 possible different rows This takes about hours to ring, and has been done only a couple of times. Page
A Hunting We Will Go Now we know our ground rules, and also what we re aiming for. We ll look first at three bells. If we change the pair in st and nd place (leaving the bell in rd place to stay t, or make thirds, we move from to. We know we can t change the same pair again, or we get back w we came from, so we change the pair in nd and rd place instead, moving from to, then we repeat the same pattern. After 6 rows, the bells come back into rounds. All 6 rows are different, and t are only 6, so this is the extent. What is remarkable is the path of each individual bell. The process of moving from st place (leading) to the last place (the back) and then returning to the lead is called hunting. Each bell follows the same path, but starts in a different place. As Hunting alone has produced the extent on three bells, t s not much more to explore. Let s move on to four bells. If we start as in the lower diagram on the right of the previous page, but instead of changing all the pairs back again, leave the bells in st and th place w they are, and just change the middle pair, and then repeat the pattern again and again - both pairs, middle pair, both pairs, middle pair - we come back into rounds after 8 rows. The paths of the individual bells are just as with three bells, hunting in and out. But we ve only got 8 rows out of a possible. How can we get the extent? on Four Bells - Minimus What we do is ring our Hunting up to the point w it is about to come back into rounds, then throw a spanner in the works by changing something other than the middle pair. We know we can t change both pairs: that will just repeat the last row but one,. We change just the pair in rd and th place, and leave those in st and nd place w they are, giving us. Then we go back to our Hunting sequence for another 8 rows up to the point w we are about to get again from, and chuck the same spanner in the works to get instead. Another 8 rows of Hunting bring up rounds again. We have rows, all different. The extent is conquered. Things to notice are that no., the treble bell, is what we call a hunt bell, and rings nothing but a plain hunting path all the time. This is not to provide a relatively easy ride for an inexperienced ringer, convenient though that is, but because rotation of the other bells around a fixed hunt in this way provides a convenient and simple way to obtain the extent. The other three bells can be seen to ring the same path, but starting in a different place, as illustrated on the left. The work of these bells is still mostly plain hunting, apart from the bit w we threw the spanner in the works when the treble leads. This results in nd place being made over the treble s lead, and the pair of bells above that dodging in -. Page
Dodge - Down starts Dodge - Up starts starts Make Seconds over the treble and lead again So t are three things to learn to do according to the three places you can be in when the treble leads. You can be dodging in - down, dodging in - up, or making seconds over the treble. Wver you start, they come in that sequence, and the method can perhaps be most simply learned by remembering that sequence, as illustrated in the diagram above. Minimus isn t the only method, or means of obtaining the extent on four bells, but t aren t many, and it is relatively easy to understand. It also forms the foundation upon which we build both Doubles and Grandsire Doubles. starts Dodge - down starts Dodge - up starts Make nds Page
on Five Bells - Doubles Five is an odd number, and arguably is less suited to odd numbers of bells than even. When we have our second place over the treble, and our dodge in -, the poor sod in th place is stuck t for rows in succession with now else to go. Some ringers don t really like the idea of a bell staying in one place for as long as four consecutive blows, but in spite of that, Doubles has been pretty popular for over 00 years now, so it must have something going for it. On the right is what we call a plain course of Doubles, which is derived in pretty much the same way as Minimus, making allowance for the odd number of bells. Again we have a hunt bell, the treble, which rings plain hunting all the time. As with Minimus, the working bells (that is not the hunt bell) all do the same work, but starting in a different place, with the addition of the long fifths or four blows behind to the itinerary. The sequence of work is shown on the left of the next page. So how do we actually ring this? Well, we can just learn the sequence of work done when the treble leads. Between times it s just plain hunting anyway. It s like learning Shakespeare for school exams, just go on chanting it till it s stuck - Make seconds, Dodge - down, Long fifths, Dodge - up, Make seconds, etc, etc. You have to do this. Most beginners don t do enough learning and seem to expect to ring things they don t know well enough. But it s not a total solution, because we all doze off now and then, and if you lose concentration and forget what you did last, you need a way of picking up the thread. Remember that the spanner only goes into the works when the treble leads. Apart from that you plain hunt. The key to picking up the thread is to know when the treble leads. You could listen for the treble leading. Trouble is this only works if your ear is highly trained and you re ringing ten or twelve bells - fewer bells and by the time the bell strikes it s too late. It s a useful skill, but by the time you ve acquired it, you probably don t need it! You could watch for the treble leading - ropesight. I encourage the development of this skill, too - but at this stage your ropesight probably isn t good enough. The easy way is to watch w you pass the treble as you hunt out. When you pass the treble, it s on its way down to lead, and whatever place you pass it in, it will take that many rows to reach the lead. That s not very clear, is it, so let s look more closely. The easiest to understand is if you pass the treble in -, that means that the treble passes from nd place to st place (lead) as you pass from st place (lead) to nd place. In common parlance, we say the treble takes you off the lead. In this case, it s fairly clear that the treble is leading as soon as you ve passed it, so the spanner goes in the works straight away, and as you re in nd place by then, you make nd place and lead again. Pass treble - Make Seconds Page 6
starts Not much more difficult is passing the treble in -, that is, as you move from nd to rd place. By then the treble will have one place to go to lead, so by the following row, when you ve reached th place, the treble will be leading, so you dodge - up. Pass treble - Dodge - up Dodge - down starts And by similar logic, you can deduce the two remaining possibilities:- blows in ths starts Long Fifths Pass treble - Dodge - up starts Make nds Page 7
So we have a set of rules, which, again, can and should be learned: Pass treble -, Make seconds and lead again Pass treble -, Dodge - up Pass treble -, Make long fifths Pass treble -, Dodge - down Don t rely on these totally - the treble might be out of place. They re a fall back in case you forget what s next, and a confirmation that all is well. We ll have a look at another approach - the concept of leads - in a bit, but let s just think about that extent again. The Extent of Doubles The bells came into rounds at the end of the plain course after 0 rows, more than the of Minimus, but this time not the extent. So we ve had Hunting, and turned that into by throwing a spanner in the works when the treble leads to increase the number of rows produced. That produced the extent on bells, but doesn t on, so we re going to have to introduce some new twist in the plot to go further. What we do, in fact, is introduce the concept of calls. These are utterances made by the conductor which cause spanners to be thrown into the works in predetermined ways, in order to increase the number of different rows produced. The plain course means a course without calls, that is w every time the treble leads the conductor says absolutely nothing. When the treble leads, we have second place made, and a dodge in -, and we call that a plain lead. T is no call. A plain course consists of four plain leads. A call in Doubles consists of the conductor calling when the treble is in nd place just about to lead. At a bob, instead of the pair in - changing over, and the bells in st, nd and th places staying w they are, the pair in - change over, and those in st, th and th places stay put. That is, instead of:- we have This introduces some new work to the method, and you need to learn and be familiar with the following rules:- The bell which would have made seconds at a plain lead, will run out (that is plain hunt out to the back) at a bob. The bell which would have dodged - up at a plain lead, will make fourth place and go in to lead at a bob (this is called making the bob). The bell which would have dodged - down at a plain lead, will run in (that is plain hunt straight down to lead) at a bob. The bell which would have made long fifths at a plain lead, is not affected at all by a bob, and still makes long fifths. Page 8
This last fact is significant. If we call a bob every time the same bell (doesn t matter which) is making long fifths, the bells will come back into rounds after three bobs have been called at the end of 0 rows, all different. This is how we obtain the extent. The, which causes so much heartache to beginners, is not t as an aggravation. It is used because it is necessary to obtain more than the 0 rows produced by the plain course, and in particular, to produce all 0 rows of the extent. Another Approach to Extending Minimus - Grandsire Doubles Grandsire Doubles is another angle on inflating Minimus to fit five bells. This time, we use a second hunt bell (no. ), and this pushes the second place of Minimus out to Third place, and the - dodge out to a - dodge. The plain course is shown on the right. Again, it s possible to work out and learn - and you should - a set of rules based on w the treble is passed on the way up from the lead:- Pass the treble in -, make third place and go down to lead. Pass the treble in -, dodge - up. Pass the treble in -, dodge - down. Pass the treble in -, you re the second hunt bell for now, carry on plain hunting. But again I recommend using these as a backstop in case your concentration wanders from the sequence of work, which you also need to learn:- T are some important differences between Grandsire and Dodge - Down starts starts Make Thirds over the treble and hunt bell and lead again Dodge - Up starts which have a very practical significance. First, because the third place and - dodge take place when the second hunt bell takes the treble off the lead, not when the treble leads, the method actually starts with a dodge. Secondly, the dodges in - are on the opposite stroke to those in - in Doubles. - up is over at handstroke and under at backstroke, - up is the other way round. - down is under at handstroke and over at backstroke, - down is the opposite. Whichever of or Grandsire you ve learned first, the transition to the other one will need thinking about. The plain course of Grandsire comes into rounds after 0 rows, and to obtain more we need to use calls. Calls in Grandsire are a bit more complicated than in, because they need to affect the second hunt bell, moving it out of the hunt and putting one of the others in its place. We can t Page 9
obtain the extent with no. in the hunt all the time - row could not be obtained for example. First we ll look at the bob, then we ll need to do a bit of maths again. This is the first plain lead of the course of Grandsire:- Dodge - down starts Dodge - up starts If we call a bob t, we get: starts Make rds As with, we need to learn a set of rules for dealing with this:- The bell which would have dodged - up at a plain lead, will make third place, go down to lead, and go into the hunt, at a bob. (And remain in the hunt until the next call) The bell which would have dodged - down at a plain lead, will double dodge - up at a bob. (And make third place next) The bell which would have remained in the hunt at a plain lead, will double dodge - down at a bob. (And dodge - up next) The bell that would have made third place at a plain lead is not affected by the bob. And t isn t really any alternative to learning this if you want to become proficient. Most novice ringers do too little learning and too much ringing. Tiresome as learning is, if you don t know it, you won t be able to do it. Think of it like French irregular verbs - perhaps not the most interesting aspect of a trip to France, but if you want to speak the language fluently, you just have to knuckle down and learn them. Most proficient ringers have great patience with beginners making mistakes, but it does become a little tiresome when t is little evidence of any effort being made to learn the stuff, week after interminable week! Your tower captain will help, but no one else can learn methods for you. Page 0
More Maths - Nature of Rows Any row, as we ve seen, can be produced from rounds by changing pairs of bells. T are many different routes from rounds to any row. Interestingly, any row which can be produced from rounds by changing an even number of pairs of bells, can never be produced by changing an odd number of pairs. Any row which can be produced by changing an odd number of pairs, can similarly never be produced by changing an even number of pairs. Those rows which are produced by changing an odd number of pairs from rounds are called odd, or negative rows. Rounds itself, and the rows produced by changing an even number of pairs, are called even, or positive, rows. This characteristic of each row is called its nature, or its parity. Half the possible rows on any number of bells are positive, and the other half are negative. Of the 0 possible rows on five bells, 60 are positive and 60 are negative. We start from rounds, which is by definition positive. If we have a single change, we produce a row of opposite nature to the previous one, whilst if we have a double change, we produce a row of the same nature as the previous one. The plain course of Grandsire Doubles consists of all double changes, so all the rows are positive. The bob, too, consists of double changes only, and does not break this sequence. Using plain leads and bobs, only the 60 positive rows are accessible to us. The 60 negative rows remain beyond a divide which bobs do not bridge. This problem doesn t occur with Doubles. Every time the treble leads, we have a single change, whether t is a plain lead or a bob, and thus the nature of the ten following rows is switched. Doubles starts with 0 positive rows, then 0 negative ones, then 0 positive ones, and so on. The extent is accessible in Doubles using plain leads and bobs alone. Not so with Grandsire. Yet another kind of spanner has to be thrown into the works if we re to get beyond the 60 positive rows, and it has to incorporate a single change to switch the nature of the rows. The Grandsire Single The required call is known as the single, no doubt because it contains the necessary single change. It looks like this. Compare with the bob and plain lead which I ve repeated with + and - signs to indicate the nature of each row. Grandsire Lead + + + + + + + Grandsire + + + + + + + Grandsire Single + + + - - - - Again, a set of rules is applicable to the single and again they need to be learned:- The bell which would have dodged - up at a plain lead, will make four blows in third place and go down to lead at a single. (And dodge - down next) Page
The bell which would have dodged - down at a plain lead, will double dodge - up at a single - just as at a bob. (And make third place next) The bell which would have remained in the hunt at a plain lead, will double dodge - down at a single - just as at a bob. (And dodge - up next) The bell that would have made third place at a plain lead will make seconds, lead again, and go into the hunt, at a single. (And remain in the hunt until the next call) At least two singles are required in the extent. If t are more than two singles, t must be an even number. A single switches to negative rows, and rounds cannot be produced until a second single has switched them back to positive again. The sequence,,,,, Single,,,,,, Single (which can be started anyw), will produce the extent in Grandsire Doubles. So, singles are used in Grandsire Doubles for the sound mathematical reason that the extent can t be obtained without them, not just to make some extra complication to learn. Enough of Grandsire, let s have a final look at Doubles from another angle Learning Each Lead Separately The ten rows from the treble s leading at backstroke to leading at handstroke again are known as a lead, and the first row of the lead, the t reble s backstroke lead, is known as a lead head. The first lead head is rounds. At each lead head, the treble is leading, and each of the other bells occupies one of the other places. Look at the course printed on the right, and see that each working bell occupies each place once at the four lead heads. For example, the th is in th place at the first lead head, rd place at the next lead head, then nd place, then th place for the final lead. All the others will do the same, but start at a different lead. Whichever bell is in a given place for any lead will always do the same work for that lead. For example, as I ve highlighted in the diagram on the right, no. is in nd place for the first lead, no. is in nd place at the start of the second lead, then no, then no. for the final lead. All do the same work for the lead that they are in nd place. We call this doing the work of second place bell (abbreviated to pb ). Don t confuse this with being bell no, or whatever, in the tower. When we say that a bell is third place bell, we mean that it is starting that lead in rd place - in rd place at the lead head - not that it is bell no. in the tower. Bell no. is third place bell for the third lead, starting. Now we can be in one of only four places at each lead head - if we ring all day we can t be in any other place. The treble is leading and t are only four other places to be in. If we know the work of each lead, and we know which lead we re in, we ll be fine. And t are only four options. Even if we have lots of bobs, t are still only four places to be in at each lead head, and only four chunks of work to know. Page
Make second place, to rd Place Bell Hunt out to the back, hunt in again to lead, treble takes you off lead:- nd Place Bell Lead, plain hunt out to the back passing the treble in -, hunt in again as far as rd place:- Dodge - up to Dodge - down to th Place Bell Lie behind for a fourth blow, hunt down to lead, hunt up to th place passing the treble in - Lie behind for a third blow to th Place Bell Hunt down to lead, plain hunt out to the backpassing the treble in -, and lie behind:- The diagram above is similar in concept to the sequence of work shown on page, but t is a difference. We re seeing the work which we do in the interior of each lead, which I ve shown as a yellow blob, as the bricks from which our method is built. The bit we do as the treble leads - the change between the last row of one lead (the lead end) and the first row of the next (lead head) - shown as blue blocks, is the mortar which joins the bricks together. Now in (unfortunately this doesn t apply to Grandsire, but it does to most methods which you ll come across), and almost all other methods you will ever ring, when you have a call, only the change between lead end and lead head is affected. The interior of the leads is not affected by calls at all. To use my analogy again, the bricks remain the same. s and singles are just different kinds of mortar used to stick them together in a different way. We can illustrate this in the diagram below. The bricks (yellow blobs) are the same. Blue mortar is how we join them together at plain leads, and purple mortar represents bobs. Dodge - up to rd Place Bell Hunt out to the back, hunt in again to lead, treble takes you off lead:- "Run out", to Make second place, to "Run in", to nd Place Bell Lead, plain hunt out to the back passing the treble in -, hunt in again as far as rd place:- Dodge - down to th Place Bell Lie behind for a fourth blow, hunt down to lead, hunt up to th place passing the treble in - Make fourth place, to Lie behind for a third blow to or th Place Bell Hunt down to lead, plain hunt out to the backpassing the treble in -, and lie behind:- This may seem a very complex flow chart when it jumps off the page and hits you between the eyes. I m not suggesting you learn it by rote this time!. That would be missing the point. I m suggesting that you study it in conjunction with the course of the method and the diagram of the bob, and that you try to understand it. Once the penny drops, you don t need to learn it. Now it s perfectly possible to ring Doubles without knowing each lead as a separate entity in this way. Some ringers would say it s over the top to learn like this. Maybe. Page
What I would say is that it s a very good discipline to get into, because as you move beyond to more complex methods, you really need to learn them like this. can be learned as a rule based system, w you learn the rules for what you do according to w you pass the treble, and s your uncle. This isn t practical with more complex methods, still less so with splicing different methods together, so t s something to be said for getting into good habits from the start. Not convinced? Well, you won t want to ring and Grandsire for ever. Let s look at w you might progress. Reverse Canterbury Pleasure Reverse Canterbury is a logical progression from. Really, it s almost the same except that the - up dodge is replaced by rd and th place, and the - down dodge by th and rd place. This makes the starts for rd and th place bells a bit more tricky, as you kind of start half way through these places. It also means the work comes in a different sequence. Have a look at the diagram on the right. Most budding ringers who ve mastered Doubles take quickly to Reverse Canterbury. Until you call a bob. Have a look at the bob:- Reverse Canterbury Reverse Canterbury At first sight, this looks hideously complicated, with two sets of thirds and back to lead and a weird looking long fourths which seem quite foreign to the method you knew in the plain course. But the bob is really just like a - st, th and th places made instead of st nd and th. Only the one change is different. Compare, and convince yourself of this:- Reverse Canterbury Pleasure Page
nd Place Bell rd Place Bell th Place Bell No difference really, is t? If you ve learned each of the four leads ( bricks ) as separate entities, you ve only got to stick them together with one different change ( mortar ). You get problems when you somehow see the bob as going on for ages and ages and creating lots of unfamiliar bits of work. It doesn t. It last one change only, and if you re familiar with the starts for all four leads, and you know which place you ve landed in at the lead head, you re well away. One good way to get familiar with all four starts is, when you re at the ringing plain course stage with a particular method, to make sure you ring a different bell each time and get yourself comfortable with each start. Conversely, one good way not to learn all the starts - and sadly what most beginners do - is always to ring the same bell. It s up to you. th Place Bell Let s have another of my ghastly flow charts for Reverse Canterbury Pleasure:- th Place Bell Make fourths place then hunt out to the back, lie behind, and hunt down to lead, treble takes you off lead:- Move up to fourth place to th Place Bell Lie behind for a fourth blow, hunt down to lead, hunt up to make third place:- Page "Run out", to Make second place, to Make a third blow in fourth place, to "Run in", to Lie behind for a third blow to or nd Place Bell Lead, plain hunt out to the back passing the treble in -, hunt in again and make fourths place:- Move down to third place to rd Place Bell Make thirds and go down to lead, hunt up to the back and lie behind
Extents of Reverse Canterbury can be called in just the same way as - pick an observation bell, and call a bob every time that bell is making long fifths. St. Simon s The methods we ve looked at so far have been pretty much plain hunting apart from a bit of fun at the treble s lead. You might like to try St. Simon s next when you ve mastered those. The plain course is on the right. I m suggesting St. Simon s, because it gives you a bit of an introduction to method structure. It s one of many Doubles methods in which two bells work together in the front two places from the time the treble leaves until it returns (highlighted by the yellow box), whilst the treble and the other two working bells play at plain hunt between third and fifth place. The bob is, in principle, just like a, and extents can be called in the same way, by calling one bell, the observation bell, three times in long fifths. St Simons Lead In these methods, the internal work of each lead is much more involved than or Grandsire, and by this stage it s well worth learning each lead separately. Here s the now obligatory flow chart. th Place Bell Hunt down to the front and double dodge in - down, then lead, lead, treble takes you off lead:- "Run out", to Dodge - down to th Place Bell Lie behind for a fourth blow, hunt down to make third place, hunt up to the back again passing the treble in -, then hunt down to rd place:- Make second place, to Make fourth place, to St Simons "Run in", to Lie behind for a third blow to or nd Place Bell Lead, double dodge in - up, hunt up, passing the treble in -, to th place:- Dodge - up to rd Place Bell Hunt to the back, then down to make third place, then hunt out to the backpassing the treble in -, and lie behind:- Page 6
nd Place Bell rd Place Bell th Place Bell th Place Bell Forgive me for labouring the point, but what I want you to understand clearly is that t are only four bits of work to know, as represented by the yellow blobs - one for each of the four places in which you can find yourself at the lead head. All the bob does is join them together in a sequence different from the plain course. Nothing else to it. If you know each lead, and understand how the bob works, you can ring the method. W Next? Ringing Doubles is very entertaining and t are dozens of methods to keep you busy for years to come. Get a copy of Stuart Bamforth s An Introduction to Ringing Multi-Method Doubles and once you re confident with, Reverse Canterbury and St. Simon s, start working through that. Entertaining as Doubles is, Minor can be even more so, so have a go at Minor, too. If t s anything you don t understand, either from the course itself, from the practice sessions, or from these notes, please don t hesitate to get in touch. Remember, your progression as a ringer is your responsibility, not someone else s. If you want a go at a quarter peal of St. Simon s, book some bells and invite some good ringers. Don t wait for other people to make things happen. Oh, and, by the way, learn the method first! Always keep your theoretical knowledge several steps ahead of your practical skills. Don t wait until you ve reached that stage before you learn methods - you never will. That s putting the cart before the horse. Learn first, ring second. If you can ring Doubles, the only reason you can t ring St. Martin s Doubles is that you don t know it. Learn it, then you will know it. Be prepared for the opportunity to ring it when it comes along. That is the way you reach that stage. Michael Foulds This document is provided by The Whiting Society of Ringers For further information and items of possible interest, visit our Website www.whitingsociety.org.uk Page 7