My own ringing

In my main page on ringing I've tried to present things objectively, and in my learning to ring page, I've made passing reference to what I've learnt. Here's a page of my more subjective thoughts about ringing, and notes about what I can ring, what I have rung so far, my own compositions and so on.

Subjective thoughts on ringing

What I liked about ringing

I had many reasons for enjoying ringing (I have since got fed up with lack of opportunities for progress, and stopped ringing), not all of them easy to pin down. I liked the complexity, that there was always something to learn (and that I did steadily make discernable progress, up to a point); the concentration required; the exercise of a physical skill; the ingenuity of the design of methods and touches... and the friendliness (up to a point) and intelligence (up to a point) of the other ringers!

What I can ring

• Cover for up to Cinques
• Grandsire Cinques bells, tentative on 10 and 11
• The Standard Eight Surprise Major, plus Cornwall, and waiting to do Belfast
• Plain Bob on up to 8 bells (or once, successfully, on 10)
• Stedman (doubles, triples and learning caters)
• Grandsire (doubles, triples, caters, and cinques) -- still learning bobs and singles
• Treble Bob on 6 or 8
• Reverse Canterbury Doubles, St. Martin's Doubles, St. Simon's Doubles
• St. Clement's Minor and Major
• Single Oxford Minor
• Double Oxford Minor
• Kent Treble Bob Minor
• Cambridge Surprise Minor and several other Surprise Minor methods
• The Standard Eight Surprise Major
• Five-spliced from the Standard Eight; and two-spliced switching between right-place and wrong-place methods
• Belfast Surprise Major (but I only got a chance to try this on a handbell; at that point, I got fed up with lack of opportunity to progress)

My attempts at composing methods and touches

Treble place major method: -3456-1.3456.27.3456.1.3456.27.3456.1-36-1, 2

RAS suggested changing this to -345-1.3456.27.3456.1.3456.27.3456.1-36-1, 2

Plain Major method: -1-6-5-1, 2

Turned out to be same as Edmonton Bob Major. The aim was to get some treble-bobbing by working bells in a plain method -- didn't really get as much that way as I hoped for, but was pleasantly surprised by the musicality (and then unsurprised that it was already named).

Alliance Major method: 56.47.56.3-25-45-3.12.5, 2

An attempt at a non-treble-dodging method containing Cambridge Places.

Alliance Major method: -45-3-5-45-3-5, 2

A modification of the above, to have more plain hunting in 5-8 and dodging in 1-2 -- in fact, it is as close to a fusion of St Clement's Minor and Cambridge Minor in a Major method as I could get.

John C. G. Sturdy

Last modified: Sun Jun 10 22:12:57 GMT Daylight Time 2007