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.
I'm taking a holiday this week, so I booked myself up for lots of online handbell ringing. (Ringers in England have been taking advantage of the recent relaxation of lockdown to restart live outdoor handbell ringing, but we still can't get our band together because in Scotland we are not...
On Monday we tried a quarter of York Maximus, with a band that didn't include a star conductor - so I ended up calling it. It was a little more difficult than we expected, and we didn't score. Also we didn't manage to ring a plain course afterwards. Oh well...
I rang a satisfying quarter of Sgurr a'Chaorachain this evening, with the Five o'Clock Club, scored at the first attempt. We did well with no major difficulties. It's a lovely method, very musical with lots of back-bell runs on the front. And it has so many landmarks that it holds together...
Sometimes described as "poor man's Bristol Royal", Littleport extends Bristol Major to Royal by turning the treble around in 8th place, maintaining the pattern of points and fishtails at the back, and filling in with triples dodge above the treble across the half lead. The same idea works for maximus...
Several of the Five o'Clock Club quarters have involved myself, Simon Rudd and Simon Humphrey. We speculated about the appropriate collective noun (possibly an "excellence") and then thought of trying to ring a Simons quarter. Simon Linford was the obvious fourth person, as he has been doing a lot in Ringing Room...
It seems to be more than a month since my last blog, so what have I been doing? Plenty of online ringing in Ringing Room with the Five o'Clock Club, occasional visits to the Friday evening Handbell Stadium practice, Tuesday evening sessions in Ringing Room with the Glasgow tower bell band...
We didn't get the quarter of Bristol on Monday. I got a bit lost in a way that would have been easily recoverable in live ringing, but proved impossible to retrieve with the constraints of online ringing. It was a good attempt though, with accurate ringing up until the big kerfuffle...
Yesterday evening was the weekly Handbell Stadium practice, which I joined after having missed a couple of weeks. As usual there was a lot of interest in Double Norwich, so I rang a couple of courses. Then there was a suggestion of Duffield.
If you're not familiar with Duffield, it's a major...
Two lost online quarters this week, in contrast to the three successes last week.
Yesterday was an attempt for Cambridge Major, silent and non-conducted. The idea was to meet in Ringing Room and not set up an audio channel (usually we use Zoom); also not to use the chat in...
Lots of handbell ringing, in person and online:
- Last Monday: Cambridge Royal practice session with Jonathan, Angela and Peter. Different band placing, partly determined by social distancing requirements: Angela on 3-4, me on trebles, Tina conducting.
- Last Wednesday: online quarter of Stedman Triples. I still find that Stedman takes a lot...