Beltower Bell Ringing Software: Listening and Conducting Challenge

Listening Challenge

You can choose Random Stages and/or Striking Errors, each with a choice of difficulty levels.

Options

Option 1 offers Random Stages (numbers of working bells) and Numbers of Bells (including tenor cover when appropriate). You also have the choice of either Diagnosing or applying Corrections to the striking errors, through Options 2 or 3.

Difficulty Levels

The difficulty levels for random stages (now 12 options) encompass Rounds, Random Sequence (Call Change), Plain Hunt or Method, with and without a covering tenor. The difficulty levels for striking errors include a single bell either early or late in optional/random degrees, through to 2 bells with added method errors (falling off the line).

Screen Shot 1

shows the Listening Challenge options.

Error Detection

Striking errors are chosen automatically and you enter your diagnosis in the Log.

Option 2, Diagnose, starts you off with small errors, and you can increase their size to make them easier to hear. With Option 3, Correct/Adjust, you start off with random errors, and you aim to reduce all the errors to zero, bit by bit.

Diagnosis and Correction

In the Log tab, you enter your diagnosis. Only the bell and early/late are required at level 1, but at the higher levels it gets harder, including hand/back stroke, the degree of error and the circumstance. And the errors can be revealed at any time at the press of a button.

Combine striking errors with plain hunt or methods at random stages and you can raise the game to extremely challenging levels.

Ringing can be controlled from within the Challenge dialog, making it particularly useful for a tower quiz or listening practice.

Scoring

Scores are awarded for correct entries depending on the complexity of the errors, your accuracy/improvement, the number of incorrect entries and the time taken.

Screen Shot 2

shows the error Log with the Diagnosis and Adjustment controls for Option 3.

Ringing and the Conducting Challenge

Advanced Settings

allow detailed access to all of the striking errors mentioned above, plus others particular to conducting.

Striking errors can be introduced with a choice of error types, applied to a variety of bells, and they can be automatically pre-selected, from your chosen options. It can also ring random numbers of bells, within your chosen range, odd and/or even, and optionally, with a covering tenor.

Challenges can be started either immediately, manually or automatically. You can then try to identify which bell(s) and which type(s) of error.

Conducting:

In addition to the striking errors, method errors can be generated automatically, from selected options, to test your conducting skills, during normal ringing and calling. Errors can be started either manually or automatically, so that you could be a random way into a touch before a bell goes wrong. To make it more authentic, different striking inaccuracies can be applied to the rest of the band, which can also be further disturbed when the bells go wrong. You can then try to identify which bell(s) went wrong, what they should have been doing and how to put them right, either paused or without stopping ringing. Then correct places can be restored in a single key-press, with perfect striking, ready for the next error.

Screen Shot 3

shows the Advanced options available with Error 1 and Error 2.

The Log

records your key-presses as well as the actual errors, for comparison, rather like Screen Shot 2 above. If you wish, you can trip through different errors, as they happen, without leaving the Error Log, and then, with the scrollable changes listing and/or the striking recordings (play-back and display), you can listen again and review the errors.