The Standard Calling for
Plain and Treble-Dodging Minor Methods
Notes by Alan Rowe
Notes by Alan Rowe
The 'standard calling' is a set of rules that will produce true extents (and some shorter touches) for minor methods meeting these criteria:
The treble rings a plain hunt, treble-bob or treble-place path*
The method is symmetrical
There are 5 leads in the course
The method is capable of producing a true 720 using standard 4ths place calls**
So, the vast majority of commonly rung minor methods!
* The calling might produce extents with other paths, but that is outside the scope of these notes.
** The calling can easily be adapted for 4ths place methods using 2nds or 6ths place calls. It can also produce true 1440s of methods where true 720s are not possible due to the nature of the rows. Both of these are outside the scope of these notes.
These notes are intended to show how the standard calling is constructed, including how to use it with bells other than the 'usual' callings based on 5 and 6. Understanding this is useful for those learning to conduct minor. As well as the 'pure' Standard Calling described n these notes, there are many other callings based on it.
The calling is based on the use of an 'observation bell' (which is not affected by any calls) and a 'sub-observation bell' (which is affected, but repeats the same path every two courses). The conductor will often ring one of those for simplicity.
It is common to use 6 as observation and 5 as sub-observation, or vice-versa. This is because these arrangements never cross 5 and 6 in the coursing order, and in many methods will not produce rows ending 65 at backstroke (which some believe is a bad thing). If you are not bothered about that, then there is no reason not to use other combinations of bells.
If you do not already know about calling positions, then you probably need to go and study the basics of calling elsewhere, then come back to this later. If you do not know about place bells, then you certainly need to go and study method structure and come back later!
The observation bell is unaffected at the following calling positions:
Bob or Singles at Wrong (W), i.e. where the observation bell becomes 5ths place bell.
Bob or Singles at Home (H), i.e. where the observation bell becomes 6ths place bell.
Bob or Singles at In (I), i.e. where the observation bell becomes 2nds place bell.
Bob or Singles at Out (O), i.e. where the observation bell becomes 3rds place bell.
The order of the calling positions depends on the order of place bells in the method as well as which bell is being used as observation, e.g.
For Plain Bob, the calls are in the order WH for 6, but HW for 2345.
For St Clements the calls are in the order WH for 2346, but HW for 5.
For Kent the calls are in the order IO for 3456, but OI for 2.
For Double Court calls are in the order IO for 345, but OI for 26.
If the observation bell starts in one of the calling positions, then the first one that it reaches MUST be the other one, i.e.:
2 will reach Out then In
3 will reach In then Out
5 will reach Home then Wrong
6 will reach Wrong then Home
The examples below are based on regular methods (i.e. with the same set of lead ends/lead heads as Plain Bob, although not necessarily in the same order). There can be slight differences for irregular methods.
This gives a 120 for plain or 240 for treble-dodging methods.
Call bobs whenever the observation is unaffected. This results in calls at WHWH or HWHW for 2nds place methods, and IOIO or OIOI for 6ths place methods.
It is worth understanding that the other 4 working bells are all unaffected at one call, will make the bob at one, and will be affected in the same way at two other calls. e.g.:
If 6 is observation for a 2nds place method, so is called WHWH, then the others do this:
2: IMHI
3: OWMO
4: HIIM
5: MOOW
This gives a 360 for plain or 720 for treble-dodging methods
This is similar to the 2-course touch, but omit the bob whenever the sub-observation is also unaffected. This gives a 3-part calling.
In the following examples, 'x' shows the position of the omitted call (this is not standard notation).
2nds place method, with 6 as observation and 5 as sub-observation: WHWx WHWx WHWx
2nds place method, with 5 as observation and 6 as sub-observation: HWHx HWHx HWHx
2nds place method, with 2 as observation and 3 as sub-observation: HWHx HWHx HWHx or xHWH xHWH xHWH
2nds place method, with 2 as observation and 6 as sub-observation: HxHW HxHW HxHW or WxWH WxWH WxWH
This gives a 720 for plain methods. It can also be used to give a 1440 block for a quarter peal of treble bob methods.
It is necessary to use singles in order to ring more than 360 of a plain minor method.
Use one of the 6 course touches, but add a single in one part, in a position where it does not change the path of either the observation or sub-observation bells. Then repeat the entire calling. This results in a 6 part calling, with two singles 360 changes apart.
In each part, there are 3 places where a single can be included without affecting the path of the observation or sub-observation bells.
1) Call the single instead of the plain lead where both observation or sub-observation bells are unaffected.
Examples with 6 observation, 5 sub-observation
2nds place method: WHWsH WHW WHW WHWsH WHW WHW
6ths place method : IOIsO IOI IOI IOIsO IOI IOI
2) Call the single instead of the bob where the sub-observation bell makes 4ths. While it is affected by the single, it does the same thing as it would have done at the bob, so its path is not changed.
Examples with 6 observation, 5 sub-observation
2nds place method: sWHW WHW WHW sWHW WHW WHW
6ths place method: IOsI IOI IOI IOsI IOI IOI
3) This requires the introduction of another calling position.
In a 2nds place method, the observation bell is unaffected if it makes 2nds at a single (i.e. a Before). In a 6ths place method, the observation bell is unaffected if it makes 6ths at a single (ie a Home).
These calling positions occur twice in each part. On one of these, the sub-observation is also unaffected (i.e. it will be in the W or H position for a 2nds place method, or the I or O position for a 6ths place method. On the other occurrence it will be affected by the single, so it is very important that you use the right one!
Examples with 6 observation, 5 sub-observation
2nds place method: WHsBW WHW WHW WHsBW WHW WHW
6ths place method: IOsHI IOI IOI IOsHI IOI IOI
In the above examples the singles are in parts 1 and 4, but they could equally well be in parts 2 and 5, or 3 and 6.
This gives a 240 for plain methods. It will be false for treble dodging methods.
Use the above calling, but only call the parts with singles. This gives a 2 part calling.
Examples with 6 observation, 5 sub-observation:
2nds place method: WHWsH WHWsH
2nds place method: sWHW sWHW
2nds place method: WHsBW WHsBW
6ths place method : IOIsO IOIsO
6ths place method: IOsI IOsI
6ths place method: IOsHI IOsHI
This gives a 480 for plain methods. It will be false for treble dodging methods.
Use a calling similar to the 12-course touch, but the calling alternates between parts with singles and parts without singles.
Examples with 6 observation, 5 sub-observation
2nds place method: WHWsH WHW WHWsH WHW
2nds place method: sWHW WHW sWHW WHW
2nds place method: WHsBW WHW WHsBW WHW
6ths place method : IOIsO IOI IOIsO IOI
6ths place method: IOsI IOI IOsI IOI
6ths place method: IOsHI IOI IOsHI IOI