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.
Spliced Kent and Oxford Treble Bob has almost disappeared from the tower bell repertoire, except for Minor, but on Major and above it is still actively rung on handbells. "Treble Bob Variations" refers to a style of composition in which there is a basic course of spliced Kent and Oxford...
The Cam and Granta variations of Treble Bob consist of Kent, with leads of Kent Little Bob or Bastow Little Bob when the back bells should be in the slow. What does this mean, and why is it interesting? We will see that it provides an easier way into ringing...
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 back...
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 the central position of the change (4-5...
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...
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 23-spliced, which...
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...
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...
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...
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...