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!