Learning to Listen
Introduction
We have all found ourselves in a position where ringing is not going well and we know there is a problem with striking… But working out who or where the problem is can be difficult, mainly because we are not used to listening and do not know what to listen for. Sometimes there will be a very experienced ringer who will tell you if your striking is not right and help you. But this is of limited use, if you can’t hear how it is wrong or right and cannot therefore continue to monitor your own ringing or keep yourself correct! It is all about learning to listen!
As a ringing community, we are very bad at training our ears… leaving it mostly to trial and error and developing our skills by a mixture of chance, being shouted at and our own limited abilities to teach ourselves…. So not really very structured!
To help with this, we have created some listening games to help train your ear… They will not improve your striking if your handling is poor, but they will help you to become more aware and identify when you or your colleagues are not striking in the right place…
Our Recordings
The recordings you hear are of the bells at Pebworth, just as they sound in the ringing room. Each bell has been individually recorded at both hand and backstroke complete with its own rope noise. A computer has then been used to play back the clips in sequence and provide perfect ringing with near perfect striking… except for the deliberate mistakes, of course!
On this introductory page there are some very basic things to listen to. None is particularly difficult, but they will get you thinking about what you hear and recognising issues. When you complete this, there are lots more games with increasing difficulty… right up to expert level!
There are 4 sections for you to try:
and if these are too easy… or when you have completed them…
How many bells?
Clic the play button to listen to each clip…. then select the correct number of bells that are ringing.
Who needs a box?
Click the play button of each clip and listen to the ringing…
One of the bell ropes is too short and the ringer of that bell is in need of a box to stand on. Click which bell(s) has the short rope…
Following who?
Click the play button of each clip and listen to the ringing…
The conductor has just announced a call change… click on the correct calRemember… some conductors will call down (left column) and some will call up (right column)! We have included both in the answers… so there will be a correct answer in both columns.
Click the play button of each clip and listen to the ringing…
The conductor has called 2 changes… Can you correctly identify the new order of the bells…
A Leading Question...
Click the play button of each clip and listen to the ringing…
The ringing you will hear sounds good, but it’s not right…there is some ‘Treble Trouble’! Can you advise as to what the problem is?