food for thought

[Laura Dickerson <lauradi rcn com>]

   I had a long discussion yesterday with Alan Hughes of Whitechapel, 
who was at the NAGCR AGM for the day.  He said that over time some other 
places had trouble with slider breaks, which Whitechapel investigated 
and found to be caused by what they feel is the poor production 
practices of Taylor's, from whom they used to buy them (they no longer 
do so).  He couldn't say for sure whether 1983 sliders were of the 
low-quality vintage, but it's a possibility.  He did emphasize, however, 
that the purpose of the slider/stay arrangement is to park the bell, and 
that banging them together shouldn't happen.  With the disclaimer that 
he wasn't advocating it as a teaching technique, he told the story that 
both his father and his grandfather were taught to ring on bells that 
had no stay - the point was that the learner had to know the feeling of 
approaching the balance from the first lesson onward, and be prepared to 
not let it go over.  I thought this was fascinating.  I agree that there 
is way too much banging & bashing, but am not sure how best to teach 
people to prevent it without resorting to such a radical way of 
learning.  I try to emphasize feeling how high the bell is and preparing 
for it in advance, but I'm not a very effective teacher. I hope other 
folks will have good ideas about this.
Laura Dickerson