Alison Stevens

Change the other stroke

I am on a quest to get ringers at one of my local towers to use as little effort as possible. The more efficient we can be in our ringing, the longer we can continue, and the easier it will be to ring heavier bells. A big part of this quest is teaching people howContinue reading “Change the other stroke”

When to bend your knees

In 2019 I went on a ringing trip to Calgary with some of the other Vancouver ringers. Among other things, we rang a quarter peal of Plain Bob Minor with three Vancouver ringers and three Calgary ringers! Before we started, Anne Hutton said, “Every time you make seconds, bend your knees.” I had previously experiencedContinue reading “When to bend your knees”

Let the rope go up

The current crop of learners at St Mary’s in Edinburgh tend to resist the rope on its way up. Telling them to let the rope go up so often has prompted me to ask myself whether *I* am letting the rope go up as much as it can. It turns out, if I simply moveContinue reading “Let the rope go up”

Bell Handling Tricks – Number Four Will Shock You!

I have been ringing for 6.5 years but I am still learning things about handling! Teaching in a tower with a very long draught will cause this. Here are a few of the things I’ve noticed recently (I don’t really think number four will shock anyone but you never know!): Have you noticed any weirdContinue reading “Bell Handling Tricks – Number Four Will Shock You!”

Ringing by Whole Pulls

I think about whole pulls in basically all of my ringing, but there are some methods or parts of methods where I find it even more useful to break the line down into whole pulls. Plain hunt on four has a whole pull hunting up, a whole pull lying at the back, a whole pullContinue reading “Ringing by Whole Pulls”

Getting Better

When I taught kids to play violin and cello, I noticed that as they got better at playing a particular piece they would start playing it faster without realizing it. In my own learning experiences I’ve noticed a kind of subjective slowing as I get better, in driving a car, Irish step dancing, and handlingContinue reading “Getting Better”

A Minimus Method Visualization Tool

This post is about a visualization tool I developed in an attempt to show how change-ringing methods sound different from each other. Here I’ll look specifically at the minimus version. There are eleven plain minimus methods that contain all 24 permutations of four in their plain course. In change-ringing terms, the plain course is theContinue reading “A Minimus Method Visualization Tool”

First Bob

Welcome to my blog about the English art of change ringing! I’m Alison Stevens and you can read a little about me on the about page. The blog name and URL both mention sallies and bobs, things commonly referred to in change ringing. Sallies are the colorful fuzzy parts of change-ringing ropes. Bobs are aContinue reading “First Bob”