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.
Yesterday we had a Cambridge Maximus practice session, with our usual band plus Nick and Jenny. This was not too long after our previous session, in October, so we were optimistic that we might be able to make some good progress. In the past we have found the second half...
We've been doing some practice towards a Spliced Surprise Major project, and at the moment this involves trying to ring a quarter of Preston, Ipswich and Dunster. I agree that this is a strange combination of methods, but all will be revealed eventually. Preston is familiar as one of the...
It sounds almost unbelievable, but on Thursday we had the first lost handbell peal of the year. And it's not as if we've just been ringing easy things: my total of nine peals includes four of Bristol, one of London, and one of the Nottingham Eight.
We had arranged for Julia...
This week we have been on our annual "Hulliday", a holiday with a group of ringing friends. It was a smaller group than usual, and there was a bit more ringing, with two afternoon mini-outings for the benefit of the youngsters. We have also done a lot of handbell ringing...
It's a while since we've written a blog, and a while since we've rung anything to write about. This is partly because of the usual summer disruption, and partly because of losing a couple of quarters. However, yesterday we got back in business with a quarter of spliced Jersey, Cassiobury...
A year or two ago, the Central Council decisions (often known as "rules") were amended to allow the naming of methods that are false in the plain course. The issue came up in relation to methods used in peals of cyclic spliced maximus, where the methods were designed to produce...
On Saturday we had the Scottish Handbell Day, unusually on a bank holiday weekend because of a diary mix-up. Perhaps because of the holiday, we had fewer people than usual: just two or three groups in each session.
In the morning, we included two of our tower-bell learners from Glasgow...
Angela is away this week, but Jenny came over instead and we rang a quarter of spliced Cambridge, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, which was her first of spliced surprise on handbells. It went smoothly with good steady ringing throughout. It was the 200th quarter in the house, which has taken a...
We've just come back from a short visit to Penrith, where we rang a peal of Cambridge, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Rutland with Julia Cater and Nick Tithecott. That makes six peals from six attempts for me, and five out of five for Tina - surely the longest winning streak in...
Yesterday we rang a peal of the Nottingham Eight: London, Bristol, Cambridge, Superlative, Glasgow, Cornwall, Lessness and Cassiobury. I called Graham John's one-part all-the-work composition, and it felt like a real achievement to succeed at the first attempt without it turning into a big project. Most of the ringing...