Solo Practice

Abel is a superb facility, especially combined with motion controllers or e-bells to give as much realism as possible.

Practice a Method

Abel won't teach you a method, but it might well prove that you need to spend some more time learning the method before attempting to ring it.

A valid Abel practice tecnique for a complex method is to ring the last lead until you are striking above 9. Then the last 2 leads and so on.

Once you can ring a course of the method, speed up by 5 minute steps until you are at hadbell speeds, all the while keeping striking above 9.

Practice Calling

Set Abel to ring your touch. Ring the touch and make the calls, aim to be a beat before Abel. If Abel makes a call and you missed it, go back and review to find the problem.

You don't have to be a conductor to be a handbell ringer, but it does help to understand the difficulties. A more thorough introduction to Conducting as under the Leadership Section.

Band Practice

Practice a Method

A common problem with collective enfeavours, is being able to ring the first half of a course, and then firing up in the second half. As with solo proactice, starting at an intermediate point can help.

Normally there is a groan when the leader suggests starting at a row other than rounds, but the technique is straighforward.

For example: Start Plain Bob Major where the tenors come back to coursing, as opposed to coursing with the treble in between:
Ring
Handstroke: 1 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Backstroke: 1 8 6 7 4 5 2 3
And away into the Plain Hunting, tenors dodging 3-4 and 5-6 down next lead.

You might need to explain the work of each pair before a clean start can be achieved.