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Thomas A. Alspaugh

Calling Up

Under construction.

Call Changes are a way to ring different rows on the fly. The conductor calls out each change (thus the name Call Changes) at a handstroke, and the band rearranges themselves for the next handstroke.

Each up-call is of the form A to B where A and B are bells. A to B means that starting with the next handstroke, A will follow B.

• If you are A, you will move out one place.
• If you are B, you will move in one place.

Up-Call Quick Start

Try to keep track of the following things. They are listed in order from most important to less important.

1. Which bell you are ringing (this stays the same).
2. Your place.
3. Which bell is one-ahead of you (your one-ahead), whether you are following it or leading off of it.
4. Which bell is two-ahead of you (your two-ahead), whether your one-ahead is following it or leading off of it.

Memorize these rules; they will help you.

1. If you are the first bell named, move out one and follow the second bell named.

   Your former one-ahead will be your two-ahead.

2. If you are the second bell named, move in one and follow (or lead off of) the bell that used to be your two-ahead.

   You'll need to figure out your new two-ahead. Ask yourself: Who is my one-ahead looking at? Which sally is coming down immediately before my one-ahead's? If you can identify the bells by their pitches: Which bell is sounding two-ahead of me, or before my one-ahead?

3. If one of the bells named is your one-ahead, the other bell named is going to be your one-ahead after the call.
4. If one of the bells named is your two-ahead, the other bell named is going to be your two-ahead after the call.

If none of those four rules applies, then you are unaffected: you stay in the same place, and your one-ahead and two-ahead don't change.

Calling Up

The cases in calling up

This section outlines the cases you have to deal with when ringing call changes that are called up. There are five:

• Cases 1, 2: Your bell is mentioned in the call (another bell called to you, you are called to another bell).
• Case 3: A bell is called to the bell you are following, and you start following a different bell.
• Cases 4: The first cases are essential, but this one is just helpful: A bell is called to the bell two places ahead. You stay in the same place, but the list of bells you need to keep in mind in order to be ready for Case 2 changes.
• Case 5: The cleanup case: all the other calls, for which you don't have to do anything and you don't have anything urgent to figure out.

In the descriptions of the cases, you are ringing bell B. The other bells around you are C, D, etc. … represents 0 or more unaffected bells. Bells named in the call are in bold; when calling up, the two bells that exchange places are always named in the call.

	Case
	1	2	3	4	5
Before:					All others
After:
Your place:	+1	-1		No change
You follow:	Other in call	Was -2	First in call
Two ahead:	Was -1	Was -3	Second in call	First in call

Your bell is named in the call

Case 1: You are called to a bell

You will change places with the bell that has been following you, moving out/up one place. The bell you are called to can only be the bell one place behind you. This call can only occur if you are not at the back.

Before the call:
The call: B to D

In response to the call:

1. At the next backstroke, pull with a little more oomph so you can hold up the next handstroke to move out/up one place.
2. Hold up the next handstroke to move out/up one place following the D.

3. Now you are following the D, and the D is following (or leading off) the C, which you had been following (or leading off).

   You don't have to figure anything out, as D was named in the call and the bell it is following (or leading off) is the one you were following (or leading off).

Case 2: A bell is called to you

You will change places with the bell you have been following. You will move in/down one place. This call can only occur if you are not in leads.

You need to know which bell is two places ahead of you in order to follow this call.

Before the call:
The call: D to B

In response to the call:

1. At the next backstroke, pull with a little less oomph so you can cut the next handstroke to move in/down one place.
2. Cut the next handstroke to move in/down one place.

3. The D had been following (or leading off) another bell C; C had been two places ahead of you. Now you are following (or leading off) C.

   You will need to figure out which bell C is following (or leading off).

Bells one or two places ahead of you are named in the call

Your place does not change.

Case 3: A bell is called to the bell you are following (or leading off)

The bell you are following will change places with the bell it is following. You will continue in the same place, but will be following a different bell. This call cannot occur if you are in 2nds.

Before the call:
The call: E to lead

In response to the call:

1. You stay in the same place.
2. At the next handstroke, be prepared to follow the D instead of the E.
3. Now you are following the the D, and the D is following the E, the bell you had been following.

Case 4: A bell is called to the bell two places ahead

The bell two places ahead will change places with the bell it is following. You will continue in the same place, following the same bell, but will be two places back from a different bell. This call cannot occur if you are in 3rds.

You need to know which bell is two places ahead of you in order to recognize this case and know which of the bells named in the call will be two places ahead instead.

Before the call:
The call: D to E

In response to the call:

1. You stay in the same place.
2. You are still following (or leading off) the same bell.
3. The bell two places ahead is now the D. The D was named in the call so you don't have to figure out which bell is two ahead of you.

Case 5: All other calls (you are unaffected)

You are unaffected, and the two bells in front of you (if any) are also unaffected. Relax and keep ringing.

If you are in nths, out of at least n+3 bells
Before the call:	…B…CD…
The call: C to D	…B…DC…

If you are in 5ths or later
Before the call:	…EF…DCB…
The call: E to F	…FE…DCB…

Comparing calling up with calling down

Calling up has some advantages over calling down, especially for the conductor.

The bells that exchange places are named in the call

A down-call only names one of the bells that exchanges places (namely, the bell that is called to another).

Both are named in an up-call. As a result:

1. Up-call A to B undoes the result of up-call B to A.

   In contrast, down-call B to A (or B to lead) is undone by a down-call C to A (or C to lead), where B and C are the bells that exchanged places in the original call.

2. If your bell wasn't named in the up-call, you continue in the same place.

   In contrast, if a down-call calls another bell to you, you are unaffected (Case 0); and your bell may be affected by a down-call that does not name your bell (Cases 2 and 2a).

3. If you need to figure out bells not named in the up-call, at least those bells aren't moving as a result of the call. This primarily simplifies the conductor's job.

   For example, for Case 2 you need to know or figure out which bell was two places ahead of you before the call. You will follow that bell after the call. This is not much of an advantage for you as a ringer, since while that bell (C) stays in the same place, it is not in the same place relative to you.

   However, it does simplify recognizing up-call Case 5, which is all up-calls that do not name you, the bell you are following, or the bell two places ahead. In contrast, there is no simple description of down-call Case 5, other than everything that isn't covered by Cases 0-4.

4. The bells you need to keep track of as a ringer are named in more up-calls than down-calls.

   If you examine the table below, you'll see that 4 of the 7 items that change for the up-call cases are bells named in the call:

   1. Up-call Case 1, the bell you will follow.
   2. Up-call Case 3, the bell you will follow and the bell that will be two places ahead.
   3. Up-call Case 4, the bell that will be two places ahead.

   In contrast, for down-calls only 2 of the 7 items are named in the call:

   1. Down-call Cases 2 and 2a, the bell you will follow.
   2. Down-call Case 3, the bell that will be two places ahead.

There are fewer cases of up-calls than of down-calls

	Up-call Cases
		1		2		3	4	5
Before:								All others
After:
Your place:		+1		-1		No change
You follow:		Other in call		Was -2		First in call	No change
Two ahead:		Was -1		Was -3		Second in call	First in call	No change
	Down-call Cases
	0	2	2a	1	1a	3	4	5
Before:								All others
After:
Your place:	No change	+1		-1		No change
You follow:		First in call		Was -2		Was -2	No change
Two ahead:		Was -1		Was -3		First in call	Was -3	No change

There is no anomalous lead named in up-calls

Down-calling necessitates calls of the form B to lead in addition to calls of the form B to C. As a result, there are two extra down-call cases 1a and 2a to handle calling a bell to lead; although the movement of the bells is the same in cases 1 and 1a, and in cases 2 and 2a, the calls are different.

There is no anomalous Case 0 in which an unaffected bell is named in an up-call

Granted, down-call Case 0 is easy to handle, but for up-calls the case doesn't even arise.

• Summary page for the five cases
• Call changes practice program

• thomas · alspaugh @ acm · org
• 
• 2019May11Sa10:37
• Attribution