This weekend is the Central Council meeting in Edinburgh, so we've spent some time attending events and helping out. We were asked to ring handbells during the Choral Evensong at St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, this afternoon, at the end of the service instead of the usual organ voluntary.

We couldn't ring with our usual four, because Angela had to stay in Glasgow to run the evening ringing there. Instead, we engaged Graham John, who is a Central Council member, to join me, Tina and Jonathan for the occasion. The added bonus was that none of us had rung with Graham before (although we have communicated via blog comments), so it was a nice opportunity to meet him.

We decided to ring three leads of Bristol, and everything went smoothly. The handbell ringing was listed in the service sheet, and the congregation sat quietly and listened while we rang, erupting into thunderous applause when we finished. Performing handbell-ringing in public is always a little nerve-racking, and it takes concentration to maintain focus. It's different from ringing tower bells for a special occasion, which is also a performance, because of being visible to the audience. Also there is more danger on handbells that if something does go wrong, it will lead to an embarrassing total collapse. But everyone did well and it was a satisfying achievement.

A few tips for handbell ringing performances:

• Choose a set of bells that are not too small, and nice and loud.
• Always practice beforehand, even if you are ringing something that's well within your capabilities (and you should ring something that's well within your capabilities).
• Start and finish with a few rounds, instead of ringing "up, down and off" and stopping as soon as the touch comes round.
• Don't ring too quickly - the audience will appreciate it more if it's a little slower.