What do doorbells sound like in different countries/places?
October 10, 2011 9:44 PM Subscribe
What do doorbells sound like in different countries/places?
I mean traditional doorbells, not more modern digital ones with several choices. Like the two-note minor third down that's sort of standard in the USA. Why couldn't it just as easily go up? Does it have to go down, as a kind of bow, when presenting yourself as a visitor?
But I'm getting ahead of myself- for now just let me know if there are any other standard "tunes" you know of.
I mean traditional doorbells, not more modern digital ones with several choices. Like the two-note minor third down that's sort of standard in the USA. Why couldn't it just as easily go up? Does it have to go down, as a kind of bow, when presenting yourself as a visitor?
But I'm getting ahead of myself- for now just let me know if there are any other standard "tunes" you know of.
Best answer: I'm in the US and my doorbell goes up in tone. Its a brass thru-door type with a key that sticks out to the outside. Turn the key, ring the bell. House dates to about 1890-1900.
posted by blaneyphoto at 10:15 PM on October 10, 2011
posted by blaneyphoto at 10:15 PM on October 10, 2011
Bonus Korea data point: at the table of a typical Korean restaurant there is a "doorbell" for service. In a super fancy one it will have three different buttons -- one for beer, one for soju, and one for food. (pic via self-link)
posted by bardic at 10:15 PM on October 10, 2011
posted by bardic at 10:15 PM on October 10, 2011
The only pre-electronic doorbells I have seen (in New Zealand and Australia) sound kind of like an old-fashioned telephone. Sort of "brrrrrrrrrrrrr". (Like this one). So not up then down.
posted by lollusc at 10:28 PM on October 10, 2011
posted by lollusc at 10:28 PM on October 10, 2011
Response by poster: Blaneyphoto, assuming it's just two notes, would they match the first two notes of which of these tunes?
-Smoke on the Water
-Kumbaya
-here comes the bride
-twinkle twinkle little star
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 10:35 PM on October 10, 2011
-Smoke on the Water
-Kumbaya
-here comes the bride
-twinkle twinkle little star
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 10:35 PM on October 10, 2011
I remember doorbells in Italy being simple buzzers (like this example from France).
When I lived in a house in Brazil our guests would knock. Vendors would stand on the sidewalk and clap.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:38 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]
When I lived in a house in Brazil our guests would knock. Vendors would stand on the sidewalk and clap.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:38 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Oh yeah. Arnold Cunningham's buzz. (Book of MOrmon reference).
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 10:40 PM on October 10, 2011
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 10:40 PM on October 10, 2011
I just moved into a house built around 1907-08 in Victoria BC, and it has a new doorbell that doesn't work and a very old crank-style doorbell that rings a bell on the inside of the door. We've completely abandoned the notion of fixing the new one and have embraced the crank ringer - it sounds exactly like one lollusc describes/links to.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:48 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by jimmythefish at 10:48 PM on October 10, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I've always noticed that if someone has a doorbell in Egypt, it probably sounds like a bird chirping. At first I thought it was just something my family and friends were into, but you also hear it in Egyptian movies and TV when someone comes to the door.
posted by malapropist at 12:25 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by malapropist at 12:25 AM on October 11, 2011
When I was in Indonesia about 15 years ago I visited a house with a doorbell that called out "asalaam alaikum" (Arabic for "peace be upon you") when you pressed it.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 12:36 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 12:36 AM on October 11, 2011
In Russia, some doorbells sound like birds. First time I heard these doorbells, I thought a bird had entered the building.
posted by nicolin at 1:57 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by nicolin at 1:57 AM on October 11, 2011
Germany, seventies: our own bell made a simple drrring (inseparable, to my mind, from the greeting-to-the-world-at-large that followed when my step-grandmother entered the hallway to join us for dinner). All the bells from my classmates' parents went ding dong high-low.
My recently occupied flat in the UK still had a working variant of Tati's buzzer as in hydrophonic's link; they seem indestructible. They're also very penetrating. I always knew who in the 11 other flats had visitors.
[One step back yet, here in rural Sweden I am absolutely not the only one with only a door knocker (since the previous owner installed it, I feel safe to tell that it's a lion head chewing on a brass ring.
The imaginary alarm in my head when I oversleep has, over the years, been replaced by a knocknknock sound that rips me out of my dreams...)]
posted by Namlit at 5:26 AM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
My recently occupied flat in the UK still had a working variant of Tati's buzzer as in hydrophonic's link; they seem indestructible. They're also very penetrating. I always knew who in the 11 other flats had visitors.
[One step back yet, here in rural Sweden I am absolutely not the only one with only a door knocker (since the previous owner installed it, I feel safe to tell that it's a lion head chewing on a brass ring.
The imaginary alarm in my head when I oversleep has, over the years, been replaced by a knocknknock sound that rips me out of my dreams...)]
posted by Namlit at 5:26 AM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
In Turkey, the standard is a chirping canary sound, similar to the one in the video here.
posted by Theiform at 5:48 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by Theiform at 5:48 AM on October 11, 2011
I love this question!
I'm in Canada and my doorbell does the traditional, descending bing bong. When I was a kid we had doorbells at the front and side doors; the front door, which no one ever went to, was two-note. The side door was just the bing.
For a while I lived in an apartment in Vancouver that had the same kind of crank style of doorbell that jimmythefish describes. I loved it!
When I lived in rural Belgium, the family I stayed with had an actual brass bell hanging near the main entrance that people rang. Their Grandpa lived in an apartment in the city and had the same kind of bzzzzzzzt hydrophonic describes.
posted by looli at 7:07 AM on October 11, 2011
I'm in Canada and my doorbell does the traditional, descending bing bong. When I was a kid we had doorbells at the front and side doors; the front door, which no one ever went to, was two-note. The side door was just the bing.
For a while I lived in an apartment in Vancouver that had the same kind of crank style of doorbell that jimmythefish describes. I loved it!
When I lived in rural Belgium, the family I stayed with had an actual brass bell hanging near the main entrance that people rang. Their Grandpa lived in an apartment in the city and had the same kind of bzzzzzzzt hydrophonic describes.
posted by looli at 7:07 AM on October 11, 2011
Best answer: My grandmother's doorbell (US, old house) played the Westminster Quarters (you know, the 8-note melody that big clocks chime with?). Because that note pattern starts with the minor third, I always thought of the "ding-dong" minor third that our doorbell played as being just a truncated version of the "real thing".
But at that same house, my babysitter would leap up every time our dryer buzzed because that's what his doorbell sounded like at home, so clearly it's not regionally standardized.
in re: two notes, that is probably a feature of the mechanical nature of old push-button doorbells. There are two bells, and a hammer that sits between them. When you push the button, the hammer connects with one bell. When you release the button the hammer swings back and taps the second bell. The later versions had a mechanism such that one push did both motions (because if you hold the button down or don't press hard, it doesn't sound right, and a fancier mechanism takes that risk away). Note, this is a different mechanism than the key type like lullusc and jimmythefish refer to, that's more like a bicycle bell, where the motion of the (key, lever, button) engages gears for a repeated tapping on a single chime.
My grandmother's house I always thought of as actually playing the chime/peal, since there were 4 brass tubes on the wall (like windchimes), but it was in the kitchen remote from the doorbell so clearly it was actually an electric doorbell even if the chime was played mechanically, which (in my jaded old age) I'm starting to doubt.
posted by aimedwander at 7:15 AM on October 11, 2011
But at that same house, my babysitter would leap up every time our dryer buzzed because that's what his doorbell sounded like at home, so clearly it's not regionally standardized.
in re: two notes, that is probably a feature of the mechanical nature of old push-button doorbells. There are two bells, and a hammer that sits between them. When you push the button, the hammer connects with one bell. When you release the button the hammer swings back and taps the second bell. The later versions had a mechanism such that one push did both motions (because if you hold the button down or don't press hard, it doesn't sound right, and a fancier mechanism takes that risk away). Note, this is a different mechanism than the key type like lullusc and jimmythefish refer to, that's more like a bicycle bell, where the motion of the (key, lever, button) engages gears for a repeated tapping on a single chime.
My grandmother's house I always thought of as actually playing the chime/peal, since there were 4 brass tubes on the wall (like windchimes), but it was in the kitchen remote from the doorbell so clearly it was actually an electric doorbell even if the chime was played mechanically, which (in my jaded old age) I'm starting to doubt.
posted by aimedwander at 7:15 AM on October 11, 2011
In Peru, they are usually like your school bell. Something like the old phones. People also have the electronic ones with fancy tunes.
posted by Tarumba at 8:03 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by Tarumba at 8:03 AM on October 11, 2011
My apartment here in Brooklyn has its original doorbell (circa 1930s). It has a little mother-of-pearl-ish button, and goes DZZZZZZZZZT! really loudly. (The buzzer from the main building door is much newer, and electronic, and sounds like a very small person ululating through a vocoder.)
posted by ocherdraco at 8:15 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by ocherdraco at 8:15 AM on October 11, 2011
In Poland, aside from the 1990's craze when pressing the button you could expect anything, it used to be electric 50 Hz drrrring and now the standard is a two-tone you described.
posted by hat_eater at 8:32 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by hat_eater at 8:32 AM on October 11, 2011
Finland here; in most of the apartments I've lived, the doorbell is a simple bell that simply goes 'dringgg', like the one in here.
For some reason, in my experience, detached homes in the suburbs tend to more commonly have electronic buzzers or 'ding-dongs' of various sorts.
posted by Anything at 11:52 AM on October 11, 2011
For some reason, in my experience, detached homes in the suburbs tend to more commonly have electronic buzzers or 'ding-dongs' of various sorts.
posted by Anything at 11:52 AM on October 11, 2011
And here's a picture of the sort of doorbell I'm most familiar with, in case you want to see what makes that sound.
posted by Anything at 11:57 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by Anything at 11:57 AM on October 11, 2011
Response by poster: I got another idea since yesterday: that the ding-dong melody perfectly matches the way people say "yoo-hoo". How's that for an idle dilettante's theory? As usual, I'm too lazy to follow this up more in-depth, even though there might be a doctoral thesis on it somewhere; wouldn't be surprised. But thanks a lot you guys!
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 3:24 PM on October 11, 2011
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 3:24 PM on October 11, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by holterbarbour at 10:04 PM on October 10, 2011