Strike title

A friendly tool to develop accurate listening skills

Go to: Introduction Operating !Strike Using !Strike by yourself Using !Strike as a tutor

Introduction

Well struck bell ringing is a joy to hear, but to achieve it the ringers need both good bell control and the ability to detect and correct tiny errors so that those listening outside will hear an even, error free stream of sound. Many ringers find it hard to develop accurate listening skills but now you can practice your listening at any time, whatever your level of expertise, and without the distraction of bell handling, catching the rope, or other ringers' mistakes.

!Strike lets you see how good your listening is, and helps you practise to listen more accurately. Whatever level you are at, !Strike can give you exercises that are not too easy and not too difficult. It repeats the same sound patterns as long as you need to focus on them in order to work out what is happening. It uses clear natural bell sounds and it gives instant feedback by showing you where the bells are actually striking. It is very easy to use.

! Strike has built-in interactive help that tells you what each visible item does when your pointer hovers over it. To turn Help on click the middle mouse button either in the main window or on the !Strike icon on the iconbar at the bottom of the screen, and then select Help from the menu.

How it works

!Strike generates the sound of real church bells ringing with a perfect rhythm. It then varies the rhythm, with one or more bells not striking when it should. You can control the number and size of these errors. You can use !Strike in two ways:

Find a single error. You can make it bigger until you can work out what's happening, so you never have to 'give up'. You always get there in the end, so you always learn something. It's a game where you always 'win'.

Control a simulated band of ringers with one or more bell not striking correctly. Click buttons to tell each bell to ring earlier or later, at handstroke or backstroke, until you are satisfied with the result. Then look to see how well you did. You can see where they started and how much you improved them.

You can also use !Strike to demonstrate various types and sizes of striking errors by by adding or removing them yourself and listening to what they sound like.

!Strike can ring from 4 to 16 bells, you can make the bells sound heavy or light, and you can vary the speed of the ringing.

Using !Strike is fun

As you increase the difficulty, the challenge rises. It can become addictive. To add that extra spice !Strike gives you a score based on the difficulty of the task, how quickly you complete it and how good the result you get. There's also a league table to show how well you did against previous performances or your friends. Who said bell ringing was less exciting than video games?

All controls and displays are clearly laid out and easy to understand. You don't need to know anything about computers - just point and click. !Strike provides built in, real time Help on all controls, and comes with user notes so you can get the most out of it. You can use !Strike by yourself, in a group or as a tutor.

These notes are in three parts.

How to operate !Strike

Using it to practice listening by yourself

Using it to teach listening to others

Comments

I hope you enjoy using !Strike, and find it useful. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions you can contact me at: john@jaharrison.me.uk

Go to: Introduction Operating !Strike Using !Strike by yourself Using !Strike as a tutor