Church bells?

Question

are church bells playing any type of musical note/tune

specially written for camponologists or is it just a case of pull the rope and hope ....for the best?

Answer 1

Thanks! I knew they played tunes...but I didn't realize you had to be "skilled" in doing that. I guess I thought it was the organist playing them.

Answer 2

they are playing a tune, it takes much practice, its not easy, timing is everything.....

Answer 3

yes they do play a tune that is especially written for the bells open you ears and listen really listen the bells are a celebration of life,birth and death,marriage and a union with ourselves and the great man himself

Answer 4

Most church bells in the UK do not play "tunes" as you might normally understand it. The only ones that do are ones with Carillons - these are set of bells played with mechaniccal actuated hammers played from a keyboard or by an automated player.

The sort played by campanologists are usually sets of 6,7 or 8 bells. These are played by starting will the bell balanced mouth up. Pulling the rope causes  the bell to tip and fall through a complete circle (with just the right amount of tug) and come to rest mouth up again .. The hammer falls from one side to the other striking a single note. This takes too long for the bell to be able to play sequences of notes quickly. So the tunes for bell-ringers are arranged as what is called "changes".

Each change involves each bell in a set ringing once and once only. However, each change involves the bells ringing in a different order. With seven bells there are 5040 possible "changes". The changes are arranged so that there is a reasonable gap between each ringing of an individual bell - usually the bell changes its position in the sequence by + or -- 1.

Answer 5

They think that they are, but the bell ringers in my village are just making an awful noise.

Answer 6

yes they play different tunes one for weddings one to announce the start of a service etc

Answer 7

Yes they are playing a tune because you have to time when to pull the ropes cos if you diddnt then it would just be bells ringing.

Hope this helps!:)

Answer 8

yeah they are playing a tune. At my school it play's something called The Bells of St. Matthews. Afterwards it rings the hour with bell chimes, which gets kind of annoying especially at noon.

Answer 9

LOL! They are actually playing a tune. Getting the timing right with those long ropes is not easy, though. When I was going to school in New Haven CT there was this one church bell that would play and I swear it sounded like the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up". I kinda doubt that was it, though :)

Answer 10

My church has a large box with a timer, and it gets loaded with what looks like player piano sheets. At particular times of the day it plays tunes. I always thought the church had a bunch of different bells, actually it plays them over some powerful speakers that were donated to the church by a local amusement park.

They have about 30 different tunes that can be loaded into the player piano like mechenism to be played on the bells.

Answer 11

sets of bells can be connected to a 'keyboard', which looks more like a set of 10 - 20 large wooden levers... but with the ll lll ll lll pattern of a keyboard...  this makes the music more predictable.

Answer 12

There are specific ropes for specific bells.  Pull those ropes in a particular order, at particular intervals and the resulting sound resembles a song.