A Brief Taxonomy of Doorbells
What the sound at your door says before you answer it.
Long before you open the door, the doorbell has already told you who is likely on the other side of it.
The single, confident press belongs almost always to someone expected. The rapid double-tap belongs to a child, or an adult in a hurry that resembles a child.
The long, held press, the one that seems almost apologetic about interrupting, tends to belong to strangers - a delivery, a solicitor, someone who is not entirely sure this is the right house.
None of this is scientific. All of it is, in my experience, remarkably reliable, which suggests we are communicating more through a doorbell than the single note it is technically capable of producing.
