Christmas Bells

It's nearly Christmas.

And for the 10 days leading up to Christmas Day you can go down to St Andrew's Presbyterian at State Circle and ring the bells each evening. If you are interested in finding out more about the bells, click here. 

Anyway, we were there last night and the kids had a go with the bells. I wanted to show you the set up - it's very mathematical.

There are 8 bells. Each has a rope attached to it and the ropes are numbered. 

To play a song on the bells, the tunes are written out as a series of numbers - good for the pitch but doesn't give you any idea of the rhythm if you don't know the tune.

Here are a few samples:

There were quite a few people there having a go. It was lots of fun. And applied our number skills in the process.

If I don't get back on to the blog in the next week, have a great Christmas and see you all again next year.

Big things are planned for 2014 - including learning to play the bagpipes - so stay tuned for more great maths coming your way.