I may have noted it before on here, but over the past few months I’m much more enthusiastic about ringing than I was. This does not mean that my skill has got better; I’m progressing just as slowly as I was before (but I am progressing). However, I’m no longer really concerned about causing damage (or so I tell myself) and look forward to the next session. I’ve realised that I’m way more interested in the theory, too, and have been doing some research. It’s fascinating how much maths is involved in it all, and apparently it all swings on group theory, for those of you that means something to. For those who do not, like me, the idea of ringing is to change the order in which the bells chime, because this produces some form of music as all the bells are tuned to a scale. They are way too heavy to just ring a tune as one hasn’t got enough control, so change ringing involves changing the order of the bells to a planned algorithm, or something the conductor is calling out (more on that later). Thus, once bell handling is mastered or something close to that, it becomes simply a matter of mental concentration, more towards the end of pure wit a lot of the time. Also, I have observed that there are many areas the hobby can be taken to: the maintenance of bells and ropes themselves, conducting a proper algorithmic method, composing a new method (frighteningly hard, apparently, and unlike most music almost no creativity ^_^) or learning a new manual skill such as handling two bells at once. I’m also branching into hand bells which involves swinging two small bells back and forth, obviously being 95% about mind rather than the required physical movements, which I’m keen on for that reason.

On myself, as I said before I’m interested in the theory and in the future putting this into practice with methods etc. I’m far less good at actually ringing the bells, and this is I suppose due to the fact that I’ve never put any real time in my life into physical activity, leaving me unfit. However, I’m confident that I can get over this. Apparently if I learn to ring more efficiently and well I can overcome my general arm weakness, which will mean I can concentrate on the execution of changes, which is where it will become a lot more fun, I hope. I’ve acquired a small ‘One-per-Learner’ book and progress chart that, while designed for those a few years younger than me, puts me around the middle of the book with a lot of good material to work forward into, which is great. I’m glad to have a copy of it.

My current stage of learning is following changes called out by another ringer, which is a bit false in terms of preparing for methods as in one of those you change every pull, but helps with handling, following another bell and of course changing positions. I’m also taking advantage of the fact that I’m learning in a cathedral: I can practice ringing on higher numbers of bells which requires slower ringing than in a typical village church which may only have six bells. I consider myself pretty privileged to be learning in this way as I’m learning things like this early on. For the record, I have rung on five, six, eight and ten bells. Throughout all this I remain supervised for safety, which is great for me as I don’t have to be concerned about that. However, last Sunday there were only eight of us there and so we did some rounds (straight round the room, no changes) on eight, and of course I therefore had to be unsupervised. I rung better than I often do so that was an accomplishment, seeing as though I was on my own and had mother and sister dearest watching.

As part of these call changes I tried yesterday to call (some would call it conducting, but it isn’t really) the bells around. Unfortunately it failed miserably and I had to get my teacher, Simon, to advise me on why we were further away from rounds than I thought. This was annoying to say it was my first go and that I had messed it up quite badly, but I hope to try again next week with a new strategy for keeping the order straight in my head. I’m also ringing on a Sunday now and this is generally a step behind what I do on practice night because it has to sound good. However, I did some call changes lately on a Sunday and so this shows I’m not doing badly with it. The big thing I can’t do with regard to this is lead, that is ring in first place, and so I aim to learn this soonish so that I can call people around in a more interesting way, and without worrying about not putting myself in the lead.

I’m revising hard in the final few days before my main block of exams now, and I’m not doing so well. I’m finding that a lot of the revision I have done so far hasn’t been as effective as I thought it would be, meaning that although I haven’t completely wasted my time I would have liked to use it a bit better than I did. I am now shoving fact-based stuff into my head hard because I’m stronger it seems with regard to skills. Hopefully, I can pull it off. With all the exams I have had so far I’m happy with the result. I was going for 100% in RE as I had to live up to someone getting that last year, and while I think I am pretty sure of getting A*, I don’t know if I managed that. English Literature was a lot easier than I expected, and ICT wasn’t that bad in the end, with some nice questions. I’m so glad I revised for it, though. This is another example of not doing my revision as well as I wanted because I spent too much time on RE, really.

Coming up: I took a trip to Cambridge this week with my grandfather for two nights and so I will be blogging about that shortly

You’ve probably noticed you are being redirected to a temporary blog address. Apologies for this, I’m working on moving the blog to blog.seanwhitton.com so I can put general pages on the root seanwhitton.com, but Blogger is behaving badly and so it’s not working quite right yet.