We were four tonight, and rang a lot of Major. We are learning Kent. For the past few weeks we have had only three people, and so have practiced Kent Minor some. Today was the first time we tried Kent Major (at least, the first time with this band). We had Maggie on the trebles, Jane on 3/4, Andrew on 5,6 and Randy on the tenors.

Jane was doing a great job teaching us, and had even printed out sheets for each of us with our blue lines. We didn’t use them while ringing (of course!!), but they were nice to have. Yes, there is software that shows that for each pair, but it was nice not having to dig around, turn on phones, make sure you’re looking at the right pair, etc. Just look at your sheet.

We went lead by lead, trying to figure it out. There were a lot of stumbles, and we would pick it up somewhere in the middle of a lead, or at the beginning of a lead, or something. After an hour or so, we were able to fairly confidently ring two leads, and get most of the way through the third. We called that a result.

So, to celebrate, we decided to ring a touch of Plain Bob Major. We switched bells (well, Andrew and Randy swapped pairs), and went to it. Randy had been away for a few weeks, and after concentrating on Kent had a bit of a struggle to remember what he was doing on 5/6, and after two failed attempts we decided to ring a short touch. But a silent one – Jane would ring a Single at the end of the method so we would do it all again with the 3/4 pair swapped, and then ring another Single to come round after two plain courses. And this was successful. Not only that, but we were able to ring at a fair clip. It sounded and felt very nice!

Next week – a longer touch of Plain Bob, and then back to Kent!

Yesterday (Sunday, 5 March) we rang some prelude and communion changes at San Dieguito United Methodist Church (where Andrew is the children’s choir director). We have been talking to the music director for a while about doing this, and yesterday was the day. There were 4 of us (Maggie on the trebles, Jane on 3/4, Randy on 5/6, and Andrew on the tenors). We had a 5 minute countdown for the prelude, and just rang a plain course of Plain Bob major, and some call changes when we finished to round out the time. We then rang some larger, more sonorous bells for communion, again ringing a plain course of Plain Bob major. We had some comments about our ringing, as most of the (~200 member) congregation had never heard change ringing. And we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and isn’t that the point?

We were 3 today, so rang a bit of minor. Andrew, Maggie, and Randy gathered. We have been working on a quarter peal of Bob Major, called by Andrew, with a very specific composition (calling bobs at wrong, home, and wrong, three times). Since we only had the three of us, we decided to practice that composition on minor. We had a single false start, but then were able to ring to the end on the second attempt! We were thrilled at the accomplishment, and especially Andrew who made all the calls in all the right places. Maggie rang the trebles, Randy rang 3/4, and Andrew rang the tenors.

With that under our belts, we decided to work on St. Clements College Bob, by passing our bells to the left (so Randy on the trebles, Andrew on 3/4, and Maggie on the tenors). We haven’t rung this in a while, and we struggled a bit. But after a few attempts, we were able to ring a plain course. By this time we had been ringing for more than an hour, and decided to reconvene next week.