Double Bob Minor

About Double Bob Minor

Double Bob Minor is a close relative of Plain Bob and Reverse Bob. The method is essentially plain hunting with interruptions, but those interruptions give much interest, and create learning opportunities.

Double Bob Minor provides a good opportunity to develop the essential skill of following the path of the treble.

Double Bob is mostly plain hunting, like Plain Bob, but in Double Bob, whenever the treble lies behind, the bell underneath it makes a place, and the other pairs of bells dodge. In Double Bob minor, the place is made in 5ths, and the extra dodges are in 1-2 and 3-4. However, for the half-lead rule to be useful the ringer needs to observe the treble approaching the half lead (i.e. reaching 5ths place) as it is the position of the bells in 1-2 and 3-4 on that backstroke which is repeated in the dodge.

Method Structure.

Double Bob Minor is Half Lead variation of Plain Bob.

Place Notation:
X 16 X 16 X 56, 12, Bob 14, Single 1234.

Grid:

Diagram: Double Bob Minor, plain lead, change-rows and grid.

Plain Course structure
Double Bob Minor is a fluid method, strongly akin to Plain Bob

Learning Double Bob Minor.

The Structure

Whilst keeping one eye on the future need to ring more complex methods, Double Bob Minor is best learned as a rules extension of Plain Bob.

The Rules

Double Bob Minor - the rules
Ring Plain Bob except:
when the treble lies behind 5ths place is made and the bells in 1-2, and also in 3-4 dodge together.

Double Blue Lines

Double Bob Minor, 1-2

Diagram: Double Bob Minor, 1-2.

Double Bob Minor, 3-4

Diagram: Double Bob Minor, 3-4.

Double Bob Minor, 5-6

Diagram: Double Bob Minor, 5-6.

Goals and learning approach

What you are trying to achieve needs to drive your approach.

Track-the Treble skills

Do not memorise the lines, learn the rules, get stuck in, ring, and watch the treble to know when to dodge. You need to spot the treble in 4ths and 5ths, 6ths is too late.

Performance Level

Build on Plain Bob experience, but note how fast the hunting patterns change. Learn the Double Place bell sequences for all of the pairs.
Study the lines.
Practice a lot.

Method Mastery Level

Incorporate coursing order into your approach and mix the various aspects of the method that work for you into a personal toolkit.

Artefacts

The only new feature is lie-5ths-lie for 3rds place bell.

Place Notation and Grid

Place Notation is not relevant to learning very simply structured plain methods. The grid is not relevant to learning very simply structured plain methods.

Pictels

Pictels are not relevant to learning very simply structured plain methods.

Ringing Double Bob Minor.

The rows in Double Bob are identical with those in Plain Bob, so you will recognise the “tune”, however, the 5ths place at the half head jumbles up the order in which the blocks of 6 are rung, and in doing so includes all the work of Plain Bob at the lead ends plus all of the same work, “upside down” at the half leads.

Track the treble

Awareness of the position of the treble is a key skill for most bellringing methods, and a significant help in ringing Double Bob Minor. Some hints and tips for developing the skill are given in the techniques section.

Double Bob Minor is a good first exercise in watching the treble. The changes to identify are the handstroke and backstroke of when treble is in 4ths and 5ths. The following pair of rows then contain the dodging and place making. As in Plain Bob at the lead end, the places into which a pair of bells fall, at the backstroke define the hunting pattern which needs then to be adopted. In Double Bob this applies both at the Lead End and at the Half Lead.

Positional Awareness

Positional awareness vs Double Bob Minor is as per Plain Bob.

Place Notation Elements

The method only contains 4 elements (X, 12, 16, 56), of which 56 is new.

Place Bells

Place bell sequences for Double Bob could be of value if Mastery is your goal.

Pivot Leads, and Staging posts

These concepts are not relevant to ringing Double Bob.

Awareness of other bells

The features of Plain Bob giving rise to awareness of other bells, such as the split lead for a coursing pair, are relevant to Double Bob, but need to be reviewed in the light of the way that the chunks of method are only half of one lead (6 changes) long.

Coursing Order in Double Bob Minor

Like Plain Bob, Double Bob is pure natural coursing order. Keeping track of the coursing order and seeing the bells working to that order becomes relevant to mastery of the method.

Ringing the Method

Double bob is a progressive method, often it is the first method rung after Plain Bob. Double Bob introduces making 5ths under the treble, which requires crisp striking, especially when associated with a dodge in 1-2.

Bobs and Singles.

Bobs and Singles in Double Bob are identical to Bobs and Singles in Plain Bob.

Touches of Double Bob Minor

Short touches of Double Bob Minor (short being less than 60 changes) are not readily available. However, as the usual purpose of learning Double Bob is to enhance the skill of seeing the position of the treble, the inclination naturally will be towards longer touches, and so the list of touches linked below becomes the natural progression in the method.

The selection of touches ranging in length from 60 to 720 changes is posted at Touches of Group "b" Minor Methods