Handbell compositions
Some change ringing compositions lend themselves especially well to change ringing on handbells. These articles either give specific handbell compositions which we or other contributors have used, or discuss the merits of handbell-specific compositions.
Blog post
This is the composition we rang for our peal of Kent Maximus last year. It's based on a suggestion by Stuart Bamforth, which we used for a quarter of spliced Kent and Kent Little Bob. The idea is to use bobs in 4th and 6th place to get the...Read more
Double methods are those in which the frontwork is the backwork upside down. This means that the line of the method has rotational symmetry: it looks the same if rotated by 180 degrees about the point at which it passes the treble in...Read more
Iain Scott asked about handbell-friendly quarter peal compositions of Plain Bob Major, to be called from 5-6 with an inexperienced ringer on 3-4.
I think the answer depends on exactly what each ringer would find easy or difficult. I usually call wrong home wrong, which feels similar to calling a...Read more
In my previous article I mentioned that we were hoping to go for a peal of spliced Cambridge, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland and Bristol. Well, we did, and we rang it first time, which was satisfying. I was almost as pleased with it as I was with the...Read more
There is a possibility of going for a peal of spliced Cambridge, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland and Bristol in the near (or maybe distant) future. The idea is to take the easy four of the standard 8, and add Bristol as a step towards the full set. (We would be thinking...Read more
My previous post showed how to construct a quarter peal of Spliced Surprise Major in which the tenors always ring symmetrical leads. As the composition consists of six courses of maximum length (seven leads each), it's natural to wonder whether we can produce six similar courses in which only 2,3,4...Read more
Generally speaking, in tower as well as in hand, we ring symmetrical methods - the place notation for the second half of the lead is the reverse of the place notation for the first half of the lead. This means that the blue line of the method is symmetrical, and...Read more
This is a popular composition of Cambridge Royal, suitable for handbells as 3-4 ring only the 3-4 and coursing positions and 5-6 ring only the 3-4 and 5-6 positions. I have called it from 3-4 and 9-10. It's a two-part composition, and the part consists of two distinct phases if...Read more
The first composition is one I learnt from Roger Bailey and have called a couple of times. It's based on blocks of five befores, in coursing orders with both 3-4 and 5-6 coursing. For example, starting from the coursing order 54326, a block of five befores generates the coursing orders...Read more
I've written before about handbell-friendly compositions, but now I'm going to start an occasional series about compositions that I like for particular methods. First up is Plain Bob Major, which is the most common eight-bell method for handbell peals and a natural choice for a band starting out on peal-ringing....Read more
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