General Progress

It all started several years ago, when Jonathan Frye and Angela Deakin asked if we were interested in forming a handbell band, including teaching Angela to ring handbells.  We had been trying and failing to do just this for many years (for reasons far too boring to go into), so we said ‘YES’.

(Really, it all started when Mike Clay began some regular handbell practices with some of the students in Edinburgh and various other handbell ringers in the area, including Jonathan.  One day our schedules will mesh enough to all ring together – but in handbell ringing, patience is everything.)

Our journey from those first beginnings to where we are now  has been both fun and interesting.  Also, we learned a lot about teaching handbells to people at various levels of ability.  Through it all we have discussed theories of how people learn, best methods of learning (we don’t always agree), and how to transfer some of this expertise into the bell tower.

The blogs below are about that journey, our progress and the progress of other bands by guest authors.  They describe the ups and downs as they happen, as honestly as we can. 

Returning to Ringing Room

I've joined an online band, following a question from David Wilson on the handbell ringers Facebook group. The original query was looking for someone to practise Phobos, but so far we have focused on Bristol Royal, attempting a quarter a couple of weeks ago and then succeeding yesterday. It had...

Rhodium Surprise Major

Rhodium Surprise Major

Yesterday we rang a quarter of Rhodium Surprise Major (diagram from CompLib.org, above), and as I wrote last time, I will explain why later. It's one of the methods named after chemical elements (I believe they were mostly composed by Tony Cox), so we've rung two of them now, the...