Last week, the Pipe family rang a family quarter peal, followed by a family peal of Plain Bob Major in hand.  This may not seem all that remarkable unless you know that the band contained their two sons, who are of a similar age to our own children.  It is...

I have been roadtesting our new set of amped-up Kidsplay handbells these past couple of weeks.

(We have gotten into the habit of calling these the 'toy handbells', but we really need a better name....any suggestions?

As I had hoped, these handbells have been very useful to the Handbell Club. ...

This Thursday past I started a new block of beginning handbell ringers at our local primary school.  They were a great group and it looks like they may progress well.  I couldn't help notice, though, that a lot of the children had a pretty good idea what I was going...

Sorry, trying some txt-spk there! To wait, or not to wait: that is the question. If someone hesitates, should the rest of the band wait so that the bells strike in the right order, or should they relentlessly follow the rhythm? On tower bells we don't have a lot of...

Last night I manged to have dinner before the handbell ringers turned up - which was a bit stunning.  Thursdays are one of those days where I am always on the way to somewhere else, coordinating several schedules, and let's not mention the 'your homework is due tomorrow' threats to...

Last year's experiment in running a handbell ringing club in our children's primary school was such a success that we were determined to run it another year.  My plan was to do another 4-week block introductory course, followed by a regular session with those who wanted to continue.  At that...

Yesterday was the school awards ceremony, and the handbell club were asked to provide some ringing about halfway along.  So, for the last few weeks of the Club sessions, we have been rehearsing a demonstration for this.  The children planned an ambitious one, including plain hunting on 4, table lapping...

Wednesdays are the day that I run the Handbell Club over the lunch period, and after our success with the students at the Scottish Handbell Day, I was thinking about ways to keep that momentum.  I was also thinking about how to catch the other pupils up.

The bad news...

Our fifth Scottish Handbell Day was a day a two parts, and the first part was dedicated to the Mount Vernon Handbell Club.  We invited pupils to come for one session and have a 'masterclass' with experienced handbell ringers.  About half the club was able to come, and we arranged...