The Albany Quadrant weekly band and our experience at learning together is what inspired the beginnings of this blog. Starting with a very wide range of experience (from none to quite a lot), we have all expanded what we can ring in different ways. Besides learning as individuals, there is a separate 'band' entity, which has a dynamic of its own, different from when we each ring with other bands. Our weekly band consists (most of the time) of Simon, Tina, Angela and Jonathan, with occasional visits from Marcus and Nick.
After our successful and unproblematic peal of 4-spliced with Julia, we had a sharp reminder that we really do have a lot of ground to cover to be as competent as we want to be. Frankly, there is nothing like a bit of minor ringing to really bring the...
Last night we had a casual handbell session with Josy, which we organised completely at the last minute (the idea of organising anything at the last minute is an immense novelty in our household).
It was a good thing to do because Simon was getting antsy for lack of handbell...
My brother has recently eloped, and we have been trying to get a quarter peal round for the last couple of weeks. Our string of frustrations is a good way to encapsulate the progress of our ringing over the last few months.
(We have had a long period 'off-blog' in...
The two-week hiatus between attempts at London Major has not been beneficial for our band. We had three goes last night, and not once did we make it as far as we had a fortnight before. Overall, the ringing quality was better, so it meant that instead of limping...
Our regular band was one short last night, so we rang a quarter peal of minor and named a method. It is a six-bell version of something we have been ringing on 8 in the tower, and is a perfectly straightforward method on paper.
However, in handbells, the many places...
Having dedicated September to mastering Bristol Surprise Major, our regular band is now focussed on getting to grips with London. We have limped to the end of a plain course a few times, but last night we attempted our first quarter.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t go. It didn’t go about six...
Last night was altogether more successful. First, our son rang his first plain course of Plain Bob from the trebles. Then we knocked off another quarter of Bristol, and then a plain course of London.
Not exactly ‘knocked off’: it was the hardest composition we had rung thus far, no...