Ringing: How do you stand?

This article was born at one of our practices, when a member of the team (who’d just been sitting out for one piece) said to another member (who hadn’t) “Did you know that when you pluck, you stand on one leg?” Naturally, the rest of us demanded a demonstration, and sure enough, at the vital moment one foot came off the floor – a bit like a chicken in a farmyard, though naturally we were too polite to say so (no we weren’t).

Which leads on to some idle speculation about how people stand when they ring, and why. Perhaps this is something you’ve never thought about, but a look around at any rally will demonstrate that the subject is full of possibilities. For example, I have found that for most music I stand with most of my weight on one leg. However, for certain tricky bits, if I don’t stand with my weight distributed evenly, I can’t keep in time. Try thinking about how you’re standing, next time you play a tricky bit – and you too will find that you make a complete hash of it because you’re not concentrating.

Those of us who wear glasses often find that the music is placed at that precise distance where it’s too far away for “reading” vision, and too near for “distance”. Requests to insert pauses into the music, to allow us to change our glasses, don’t seem to go down too well with those team members who are not visually challenged. So we must either bend forward over the bells to peer myopically at the pages, or lean back and play the bells with arms stretched to the limit. Or of course, move between the two positions by alternately dive-bombing the table and leaping backwards as if a small fire has started where F# used to be.

And this, in turn, leads on to the whole question of body movement while ringing. Tapping the feet in time to the music is frowned on, for obvious reasons, but all sorts of other movements can be substituted: nodding the head, twitching the eyebrows, hunching the shoulders, bending the knees, etc, etc. There is also, of course, the “bottom beat” – as opposed to the up-beat or the down-beat. We have it on good authority that during any piece of music with a strong rhythm, it is an edifying experience to watch Kinder Ringers from behind, for reasons which I’m sure are all too obvious.

As for whole body movements – the body can sway from side to side, or backwards and forwards, or bob up and down. The side to side movement is one to avoid - if the whole team moves together it tends to induce sea-sickness in the audience, and if not, bodies as well as bells are likely to clash. Bobbing up and down is safer, and more fun, especially alternate (you go up while I go down) bobbing. Swaying backwards and forwards causes more sea-sickness, this time for the ringers.

Finally we come to the absolute minefield - facial expression. How often have you been told that you look extremely solemn when you ring, and that you should try to do something about this, if only to show the audience that someone is enjoying the performance? And have you tried to remember to wear a pleasant expression? Of course you have. And have you ended up alternating between ferocious frowns and manic grins? Well, haven’t we all - it’s part of the charm of ringing, isn’t it?

So the next time you’re playing in public – forget the music, and all those pesky little instructions you’ve been given. Just concentrate on how you’re standing, and what the audience is making of you as you dive towards the table, leap away from it, rock, sway, bob, grin and frown. And do be careful when you pluck!

A.K.R.