If you have reached this page and do not know what bell ringing is, then visit one if the sites below and click your BACK button to return here when you are ready.
THESE LINKS NEED TO BE REVISED
Another good explanation is to be found at St. Mark's, Philadelphia.
The Accrington St James' site has short videos and Real Audio files
Download some MPEG files from the Bovey Tracey site
I find it is best to get straight on with the practical work below once I have told the class that bell ringing is a hobby of mine. I explain what bell ringing is, and why we have been doing the work, later on.
A ringer called David Teal taught me this years ago using handbells and I've always thought it is the kind of fun thing one is supposed to do in a classroom; I could be wrong.
You will need 4 pupils selected from
different parts of the room, 4 chime bars and 4
beaters. I shall use numbers in the following explanation, but you need to
use the lowest 4 notes of a major scale.
For example C = 1, B = 2, A = 3, G = 4.
Get the pupils to stand in a line and issue the chime bars (hereinafter called bells) so that they sound a descending scale when played from left to right. Get them to play it over and over again.
You will get this sound 1 2 3 4 (Hear it repeated) . Tell the pupils to stop. [Note: I have chosen a rather ideal speed without any gaps. Aim for a steady, even speed]
Make the point that it is not a very interesting tune to keep ringing (one does not 'play' bells in a church tower). You could also make the point here that this scale is called rounds, because the ropes in a ringing chamber are arranged in a circle and are rung, in descending order of pitch, around the circle.
Ask the pupils holding bells 1 & 2 to change and the pupils holding bells 3 & 4 to change places. Get them to play their bells, starting with the leftmost pupil. The new row will be 2 1 4 3 and will sound like this .
Put the pupils back to their starting positions (1 2 3 4) and ask them to play the rounds row, change places and then play the new row. The result should sound like this .
Two pairs of bells have changed places giving 2 1 4 3 as the second row.
| Question: | "What will happen if the same pairs of pupils change again." |
| Answer: | "They will get back to their starting positions" |
Keeping the pupils in the order 2 1 4
3, ask the two pupils in the middle to change places.
This gives 2 4 1 3. Play the row which sounds like
this
.
(Remember always to start with the leftmost pupil).
So, looking at your 4 pupils you need to regard them alternately as:-
two pairs, shown here in colours X X X X
one pair in the middle of the 4, like this X X X X
What the pupils have to do is this. They start in the order 1 2 3 4 and play the rounds row once. Then, just before they play each future row, they must change places. The first change will be a change of both pairs, the second will be a change of the middle pair, the both pairs again and so on.
There will be 8 changes of position, after which the row will have returned to 1 2 3 4 as shown below. Ringing always starts and ends with the rounds row. Hear Plain Hunt on 4.
| Change both pairs to get next row | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Change middle pair to get next row | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Change both pairs to get next row | 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Change middle pair to get next row | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Change both pairs to get next row | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Change middle pair to get next row | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Change both pairs to get next row | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Change middle pair to get next row | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
In bell ringing books it is traditional to show the movements of the treble (bell 1) in red and one other bell in blue as shown below. If the class keeps an eye on the treble ringer it will be observed that he or she moves all the way to the right and spend two turns (blows) there before retracing his or her steps and getting to the front (as it is known). All the bells, in fact, have the same shape path. They simply start at a different point.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Having demonstrated this pattern with your volunteers, issue a set of 4 bells (i.e. chime bars which you will have prepared earlier) to each group. Sod's law (or somebody's law) dictates that the number of pupils in your class will not be a multiple of 4. Later on I'll show you how to do Plain Hunt on other numbers of bells so that all your pupils can be busy.
Give the class time to have a go at Plain Hunt and then let some or all of the groups perform while the rest watch and listen.
The next stage produces the same results but results in more mayhem which the kids love. It works as follows.
Again, demonstrate this to the class with the help of one of your groups. The pupils are NOT going to move, but they will pass their bells along to their neighbour (In bell ringing, you can only swap with your neighbour)
Start Plain Hunt with rounds as before. Thinking of the outer pairs explained above, adjacent pupils exchange bells to get the 1st new row 2 1 4 3. They play it. Now, each bell has two turns at each 'end' of the row so only the middle pair are able to swap, which they should do now to give 2 4 1 3. Next, both pairs can swap and so on. The mayhem occurs because pupils forget who to swap with and if they need to swap. It is actually very easy and each pupil needs to do one of the following.
From the point of view of the 'ringers' (not the class watching) the rules are:-
| The pupil | will change bells with | and should say to him- or herself, before each row |
| who starts with bell number 1 | the pupil on the left | Change, don't change, change, don't change (and so on) |
| who starts with bell number 2 | the pupils on either side | Right, left, right, left (and so on) |
| who starts with bell number 3 | the pupils on either side | Left, right, left, right (and so on) |
| who starts with bell number 4 | the pupil on the right | Change, don't change, change, don't change (and so on) |
Again, give the class time to have a go at Plain Hunt in this new way and then let some or all of the groups perform while the rest watch and listen.
If you are left with two extra pupils, then make one group of six. You'll need the bottom 6 notes of a major scale. This is why it is wise to prepare your bells in advance. Line your pupils up as before. The process is similar, but there are more pairs. Changes will happen as follows:-
Three pairs will change
X
X
X X
X
X
Or the middle two pairs will
change
X
X
X
X
X
X
In each of the rows which follow I have coloured the pairs which need to swap to give the next row. The leftmost and rightmost bells (black in some rows) cannot and should not swap with each other.
Plain Hunt on 6 (hear it)
| Change all three pairs to give the next row |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
| Change the middle two pairs to give the next row |
2 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
6 |
5 |
| Change all three pairs to give the next row |
2 |
4 |
1 |
6 |
3 |
5 |
| Change the middle two pairs to give the next row |
4 |
2 |
6 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
| Change all three pairs to give the next row |
4 |
6 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
3 |
| Change the middle two pairs to give the next row |
6 |
4 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
| Change all three pairs to give the next row |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
| Change the middle two pairs to give the next row |
5 |
6 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
| Change all three pairs to give the next row |
5 |
3 |
6 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
| Change the middle two pairs to give the next row |
3 |
5 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
4 |
| Change all three pairs to give the next row |
3 |
1 |
5 |
2 |
6 |
4 |
| Change the middle two pairs to give the next row |
1 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
6 |
|
R |
O |
U |
N |
D |
S |
If you are left with 3 spare pupils and you trust your class you could join in to make a 4. Alternatively you could make 3 of your groups into fives, or one of them into a six (which is fairly easy to explain to the pupils). This will leave you with one pupil. Form a group of 5 and stay with them to explain the process.
The object is to produce the following version of Plain Hunt on 5. Notice that the first row after rounds is the same as for Plain Hunt on 4 except that the 5th bell has had to stay in 5th position because it has no other bell with which to swap. Consequently it must change to produce the next row (2 4 1 5 3) which leaves the 2 without a partner with which to swap. That is just what we want because, as you remember, each bell has two turns at each end. (When a bell sounds first it is said to be 'leading' ). So there is no 'middle' pair here as the was in Plain Hunt on 4. Hear Plain Hunt on 5.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| 4 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |