Mexican Wave

The Mexican wave is an idea by Gordon Lucas (http://cccbr.org.uk/education/practicetoolkit/pdfs/fs_kaleidoscope.pdf) that involves a series of place making. Starting at the front and progressing out towards the back.  The link provides more details about it and tips on band placement and conducting/teaching it.

Starting from rounds ·         1 and 2 swap over ·         1 and 2 swap back ·         2 and 3 swap over ·         2 and 3 swap back ·         3 and 4 swap over ·         3 and 4 swap back ·         4 and 5 swap over ·         4 and 5 swap back

So why do it?

There are quite a few reason to try this

·         For a band who can ring call changes but has mastered plain hunt yet, this provides a little bit of the something different,

·         A learner can practise going into the lead from the 2^nd

·         For the bells further back they get to practice covering as they need to watch the bells under them go from rounds, swapped over and back to rounds before they need to swap themselves

·         Gives a bit of rope sight practice, especially towards the end of the change as they have to watch the change come up to them

·     Gives a striking practice since each person can hear their change individually
 

What to do next?

·         Treble/2^nd ringer a method that makes 2nds and back such as Bastow/Little Kent

·         Plain hunt singles

·         Start from a different position Queens/Tittums etc.

·         Have multiple Mexican Waves at the same time, e.g. call a 2^nd one when the first is about to make 3 and 4 swap

·         Instead of doing just a place try something else

Progress while not ringing

There are times when you wish that your learners would just “get it” or make quicker progress than they do. There are certain activities that they can do to improve their skills when not ringing.

Improving rope sight

Rope sight is a difficult thing to teach, some people just see it, others struggle and never quite get it. There are several exercises that the learner can do to try and help them improve their rope sight while sat watching ringing.

·         Whilst ringing with a covering tenor, get the learner to try and spot who the tenor is following

·         Try and spot what order the bells lead in

·         Try and spot whom the treble is following

These are best attempted while ringing plain methods like Bob Doubles.

Improving listening skills

Being able to hear your bell in the change is an art and with more and more bells is even more difficult, but if you can hear it then you can correct any crashes around yourself, so what the learner can do is while they are sitting and waiting try and get them to hear the treble or the tenor in the change, and where it is and if it moves. Picking the treble or the tenor is easiest as they are the highest or lowest notes in the change, once they can do that move on to the 2^nd (or 2^nd to last) bell and they can repeat until they are able to hear where the middle bells are without difficulty.

Homework

At the handling stage there is very little that can be done away from the tower, however, once the learner is confident at called changes you can start giving them things to think about during the week in between practices. Simple things could include getting them to think about how they would call changes from Rounds to Queens and back, the blue line (or circle of work) for doubles methods. It seems to me that the more experienced ringers become the more “homework” they do learning new compositions/methods indeed my desk is usually strewn with blue lines that I have drawn out.