An occasional series that discusses matters about the state of change ringing on handbells, with some occasional philsophising.
Going through Simon's occasional series of handbell-friendly compositions, I have been giving some thought to what features make the method itself handbell-friendly. Some methods do lend themselves well to handbells, while other methods are surprisingly tricky. Here are some of my thoughts on some particular features and a 'handbell-friendliness' score...
There has been a lively discussion on Facebook about how to reverse the decline in the number of people ringing peals, in order to capitalise on the success of the 'FirstPeal2015' initiative (this was to get 300 people to ring their first peal in 2015). In his analysis, Matthew Sorell...
Somehow I have only just noticed that Graham John's web site has several recordings of handbell ringing. They are extracts from peals, in a variety of methods on different numbers of bells, including some record lengths. All of the ringing is excellent - in fact you have to listen...
On Saturday we had the annual Scottish Association training day, at which I was running a Bristol group at Dunblane. At Angela's suggestion I took the mini-bells, and although we didn't have time to do any ringing during the day, we did get them out in the pub after...
A few thoughts based on our experiences.
It so happens that Simon's mother has lately taken up handbell tune ringing (or, as the rest of the world seems to know it, English handbell ringing). Last weekend we went to see her in concert with her group, the Alton Handbell Ringers.
This was an outdoor affair, part of...
Last week I joked on Facebook that our 41 Minor would have been the featured performance on BellBoard, if it hadn't been for the those clever chaps in Cambridge ringing Chandler's in hand on the same weekend. Yesterday we were first, for a while, before being beaten out by a...
Some activities are much easier than others to start learning. On holiday in the Isles of Scilly with my sister and her family, the children tried various watersports. Kayaking and sailing are easy to get started on, because you sit in a stable boat and if you do absolutely nothing...
You spend ages not ringing at all, then several nights come on you at once. Last night reunited our original foursome, after a long stint of work-related and holiday-related absence. It had been a while, so the plans were relaxed, and eventually, wine-soaked.
We reviewed some of our methods...
Apparently there is now a psychometric test to measure 'tough-mindedness' or resilience (a term which my informant prefers, and I agree with her). Although long known in sports coaching, it is a concept which has, I am told, recently entered general employment in, er, employment.
It is the ability to...