Alternative Rope Sight Ideas

In the previous post I commented on the difficulty of teaching rope sight, I thought I would expand on some thoughts and ideas to practice/develop this tool.

Covering

A cover is the name given to the last bell to sound in a method where it never changes, i.e. the 6th during plain hunt on 5.
When covering, it is not necessary to know the order of bells that you follow but by covering you know that the pace of your ringing doesn't need to change so you have your set rhythm and can set about just spotting the last bell.
This then enables the tenor ringer to see the bells coming up to the back and has the advantage that they are only concentrating on which is the last bell and not needing to change pace.

Spot the order

Slightly more of a challenge. While sitting out of the circle, wait for a couple of call changes to be called and see if you can spot the order of the bells.
This has the advantage that once you have spotted one bell, you can disregard it when trying to observe the order.

E.g. if the bells are in tittums 142536.

The learner can spot the treble is leading, so they know when looking for the 2nd place bell they don't need to look at the treble. Then once the 4 has been observed there are then only four other bells to try and spot.

Trebling to a little method

Previous posts have detailed various little methods for doubles (http://ringingtips.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Little) and ringing the treble to some of these helps the ringer develop some rope sight. But only needing to spot up to thirds (so up to two other ropes beneath them).

Bistow is just making 2nds so you only need to spot which bell takes you from the lead.

Stanwell, Clewer, Hampton, Laleham have fairly straight forward rules; so the bell order you pass will be ABAB lead lead BCBC, that is the bell that takes you from the lead you ring over in the 2nd place of thirds, the bell you ring over in your first blow in thirds takes you out of the lead.

Littleton is slightly different with the order being ABBA lead lead CDDC, the bell that takes you out of the lead, you take out of the lead, and the 2 blows in third over the same bell.

Grandsire

Ringing either of the hunt bells for Grandsire are useful, this one is more complicated and requires the ringer to have a feel of hunting all the way to the back, but with sign posts as to what is their first/last bell.

Something a "little" different part 2

Previously, I mentioned about ringing little methods as something slightly different.

Well here are some more, but this time the treble hunts to 3rds and back each time.

Stanwell
This is quite similar to Stedman Doubles but going in slow each time but without the frontwork.

So its:
3rds -> Double Dodge 4/5 Up -> Lie -> Double Dodge 4/5 Down -> 3rds -> Lead ->2nds -> Lead

This has a "grandsire" start, so 2 hunts in, 3 makes a place and in and 4/5 dodge.

Clewer
Like Stanwell but instead of double dodges there are places at the back.

Hampton
Again this is like Stanwell sort of. The place in 3rd are now places in 3/4 with a 4/5 dodge and long 5ths.

Ashford
Ashford is identical to Hampton but the 3/4 places are replaced with a 3/4 dodge instead.

Littleton
While Littleton looks very different from the Stanwell-type ones above.
Order of work
4 blow lead -> 4/5 up -> 2nds from the back -> 4/5 down

The strange thing or different thing is the 2nds from the back, this is where the bell at the back having lay in 5ths place hunts all the way down to 2nds place, rings twice there(over the bell doing the long lead) and hunts back out. It is similar to a single in bob minor there the bell about to do 3/4 down makes 3rds and heads out to the back, so this could give some experience of turning round without getting to the front.

Lathbury
Lathbury is littleton only with the 4/5 dodge replaced with a 4/5 place. This has the effect that there is two blows in 4ths followed by 3 in 5ths.

And for something slightly different...
Laleham
Looking at it, the first thing that strikes me is that it is not symmetrical. Being a little lazy with most methods I realise that they are symmetrical, take Plain Bob Doubles, if you split it in half while making 2nds it is a mirror image of itself, similarly if you were to split it in the middle of long 5ths. This one is different. In a lot of ways this is quite simple you have the plain hunt section and the other bit. So plain hunt till you get to the back, if you took the treble from the lead make the crankshaft (5ths-4ths-5ths places) and hunt in, if the treble takes you then just plain hunt.

Learning it by where you and the treble are will help with ropesight.

Something a "Little" Different (part 1)

Sometimes there is a need to ring something slightly different but the band is not experienced enough to make a significant change to the repertoire, after all the change from ringing Bob Minor to Kent Minor is a significant step and might not be all that achievable.

This time I shall present a number of little methods for doubles to shake up the Bob Doubles/Grandsire Doubles lassitude.

Little methods are methods where the treble does not hunt all the way to 5ths place.

Bistow Little Bob - (Hunt to 2nds)

The treble hunts to 2nds place, so can be done by a competent "Mexican-waver" but isn't confident enough to hunt all the way to 5ths. This method helps the treble ringer to develop ropesight as they are able to look for their new bell each time.
The rest ring all the work of Plain Bob Doubles but without the hunting and the 2nds, the other big difference is that the "work" is done at the start of the lead (like Grandsire) and not the end (like Plain Bob Doubles.