Kent Treble Bob Minor

About Kent Treble Bob Minor - Complib

Kent Treble Bob Minor is normally the first method rung after the Plain methods have been explored, and in preparation for the more difficult Treble Bob, Delight and Surprise methods.

Kent Treble Bob Minor is the simplest Treble Bob structure that preserves natural coursing order.

This cardinal method is the first step into the realm of ringing Treble Bob and is worthy of many performances and eventual mastery.

Method Structure.

Place Notation:
34 X 34. 16 x 12 x 16 x 12 x 16, 16, Bob 14, Single 1456.

Grid:

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

Plain Course structure
The first and last sections of a lead have Kent TB Places with dodging in 1-2 and 5-6. The rest of the method is an alternation between plain hunting (16) and dodging (12). The 5 working bells take their turn, in natural coursing order, as the "slow bell", 2nds place bell.

Learning Kent Treble Bob Minor.

The Structure

The method is defined by the path of the treble which rings Treble Bob Hunting.

The Rules

Kent Treble Bob Minor - the rules
The treble rings treble bob hunting.
When the treble dodges in 1-2, Kent places are made in 3-4.
When the treble dodges above 1-2, the slow bell (2nds place bell) makes seconds over the lead bell, and the other bells dodge in 3-4 and 5-6, one of them with the treble.
When the slow bell is leading, all of the bells ring plain hunting.

The above rules, if carefully followed, are sufficient to enable a ringer to ring plain courses of Kent TB Minor. However, awareness of the dodging position of the treble, and of the double blue lines will make a ringer stronger and more able to survive trips.

Whilst it should not be necessary to learn all of the details of the 15 possible pairs of lines, the detail of the spacings to enable Kent places (for all pairs) to be rung crisply should be thoroughly assimilated.

Double Blue Lines

Kent Treble Bob Minor, 1-2

Diagram: Kent Treble Bob Minor, 1-2.

Kent Treble Bob Minor, 3-4

Diagram: Kent Treble Bob Minor, 3-4.

Kent Treble Bob Minor, 5-6

Diagram: Kent Treble Bob Minor, 5-6.

Artefacts

Places
The major blue line feature is Kent TB places, almost always referred to as "Kent Places". Kent Places are made "wrong", i.e. backstroke to handstroke, and are contiguous, the one always immediately follows the other.

Two bells in Kent Places (places up and places down simultaneously) are usually a challenge for the handbell ringer. One bell in Kent Places and one bell dodging are an even bigger challenge owing to the counter-intuitive spacing of the bells. These spacings are written out in detail in Kent Little Bob.

If you have difficulty ringing Kent Places learn the detail of spacings at Kent Little Bob.

Slow
The slow bell structure (X 16 X 12 X 16 X 12 X 16 x 12 x 16 X 12 X 16 X) creates a Plain Bob Lead End Structure every 4 changes.

Place Notation and Grid

Whilst the Place Notation is straightforward, (apart from the places), the regularity of the structure makes this a method to ring by the grid.

Pictels

There is no value in splitting Kent TB into picture elements for the sake of ringing Kent TB, but there is value in splitting Kent TB into the separate sections as a learning approach for further Treble Bob, Delight, and Surprise Methods.

Ringing Kent Treble Bob Minor.

Track the treble

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

The 4 bells that follow the slow bell in the coursing order lead in turn. The treble dodges each time the slow bell makes seconds over one of the other working bells. Hence the skill of following the treble works well in Kent Treble Bob, all stages.

Positional Awareness

Extensive practice at Bastow Little Bob is good preparation for ringing the treble bob hunting work of Kent Treble Bob.

Extensive practice at Kent Little Bob is good preparation for ringing Kent Places.

Place Notation Elements

The plain course only contains 4 elements (34X34., X, 12, 16), 34X34 may have been rung in Kent Little Bob.

Place Bells, Pivot Leads, and Staging posts

The slow work acts as a staging post for all pairs of bells.

Awareness of other bells

Kent TB (all stages) preserves the natural coursing order, and hence the method has much of Plain Bob about it. All the pairs reflect the separations that occur in a course of Plain Bob to a lesser or greater degree.

Coursing Order in Kent Treble Bob Minor

The dominance of the natural coursing order is the main reason for Kent Treble Bob being more popular than Oxford Treble Bob. The method has the following features:

• The treble passes bells in natural order from lead to lie, including the dodging.
  The treble skips past the next bell in order which is the bell in the slow.
  The treble then passes the bells in natural coursing order back down to lead.
• The bell in the slow makes seconds over each of the other bells in turn, in coursing order.
• All of the working bells work together in natural coursing order, except that where you would meet the slow bell, it is replaced by the treble.

Ringing the Method

Treble Bob methods have a rhythm that is different from Plain methods, it is a refreshing change. Kent is an excellent place to begin learning Treble Bob methods.

Bobs and Singles.

Singles Singles in Kent TB are closely akin to the singles in Reverse Bob (Lead End becomes 1456), but are rarely used in Kent Treble Bob Minor, and hence not described on this webpage.

Bobs
The structure:
The Plain Lead end of Kent TB has 6ths Place, the bells in 2nds&3rds, and in 4ths&5ths crossing over to reach their place bell positions at backstroke. The call of Bob introduces a 4ths place instead of 6ths place.

Because of the “wrong” nature of the Kent places, the 4ths place for the bob joins together the 4ths place immediately before the Lead End, with the 4ths place made immediately after the Lead End. So the bell that has made places out when the treble dodged in 1-2 down “makes the bob”, and altogether rings in 3rds, 3rds, 4ths, 4ths, 4ths, 4ths, 3rds, 3rds, and then hunts back down to lead.

The 4ths place for the bob also introduces an extra dodge in 5-6 and because this joins on to a dodge already done, and then the bells start the next lead with a dodge, the net effect is for the bells dodging in 5-6 to perform three consecutive dodges (a 3-pull) and then to repeat the work of the last lead.

The bell coming out of the slow, and the bell going into the slow are both unaffected by bobs.

Impact on 1-2:
The above is sufficient for a ringer to ring 1-2 to touches of Kent TB Minor.

Impact on 3-4 and 5-6:
There are ten possible combinations of places into which a pair of bells can fall at the backstroke of the treble’s lead.

For the coursing pair 5-6:

For the parted pair 3-4:

Learning and ringing the bobs.
Learning
Be able to ring plain courses, striking the places confidently must be achieved before tackling the bobs. Ringing enough good plain courses to start developing an awareness of the position of the treble is an advantage.

Get on top of ringing 1-2 to a plain course, and then to touches.

Read and understand (explain it to someone else) the two tables of work for 3-4-5-6.

Then

Doing
Two bells at the back, they dodge for the method (treble in 1-2 down), dodge for the bob (treble’s leading), and dodge for the method (treble in 1-2 up). Easy peesy lemon squeezy.

Two bells out of 3rds 4ths and 5ths, not too hard, sometimes you make 4 blows for a bob.

One bell in 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, and one in 5-6. Harder.

The bell in 5-6, note which way it dodges when treble is in 1-2 down.

If over at handstroke, under at backstroke, then over / under / over / under and lie behind. In the meantime work out what the other bell did, what place it fell in, and ring that as well.

If the bell in 5-6 was under at handstroke, over at backstroke, then under / over / under / over and hunt down. In the meantime work out what the other bell did, what place it fell in, and ring that as well.

Touches of Kent Treble Bob Minor.

2nds place bell is the pivot bell, and hence the first lead end is 142635 giving calling positions from the tenor as:
Home, In, Out, 4ths, Wrong.

Using the tenor as observation bell, normally unaffected by calls, means that many calls are made as the tenor enters or exits the slow work.

This simple touch exploits the way in which bells dodging for a bob repeat their previous work. In this case, the tenor repeats 6ths place bell and dodges home on the last call.

Call Bob each time the tenor is unaffected.

Call Bob each time the tenor is about to enter the slow.

Call Bob each time the tenor is about to come out of the slow.

Conducting touches of Kent Treble Bob Minor.

The first responsibility of the conductor is to ring his or her bell correctly. Whilst this may be achieved by simply following a blue line, such a narrow approach is fragile, and a stronger ringer will use multiple techniques for ringing a method. See above for our notes on ringing Kent Treble Bob Minor.

The second responsibility is to make the calls in the right place. To discharge this responsibility first ensure that you know the touch thoroughly well. Practice the touch using Handbell Manager / Abel, ensure you are ringing at a realistic speed.

The third responsibility is to check that the ringing is correct. There are generally seen to be two approaches to this: change row observation, and continuous observation of coursing order.

Change row observation.

The normal approach to this is to learn part ends and spot them when they turn up. Needless to say, but if you miss it for any reason, essentially you need to wait to the next part end.

Continuous observation of Coursing Order.

To use this technique, the conductor first needs to know what the coursing order is that the bells are supposed to be ringing. Therefore the coursing order for the touch needs to be followed, either by transposing the order at each call, or learning the orders as they should turn up at each call.

The conductor then needs to develop the skill of seeing the order of the bells. Start with one easy example, when tenor is in the slow, it makes seconds over the other four bells in coursing order.

Next, note, for that lead when tenor is slow bell, the first bell over which it makes 2nds is its after-bell, 5 in plain course. That bell is going to hunt up, dodge 5-6 up with treble, make second places down, and enter the slow work next lead, even if a call is made.

Let me put that another way, "The handover from slow bell to slow bell is in coursing order".

Developing the skills.

These skills can be developed without anyone else knowing:

• Practice in your head (not whilst driving a vehicle).
• Practice on the simulator.
• Practice in a practice session by actively watching when someone else is calling the bobs.

Correcting trips.

Just don't get hung up about correcting trips.

If you have done the work to ring your own bell without mistakes, you know you have made the calls correctly, and at the last observation the bells were all in the correct order, then you have not wasted anyone's time. And. If you are up at that skill level, you will probably be correcting trips without thinking about it.

Towards Mastery of Kent Treble Bob Minor - calling a Quarter Peal.

Ringing a quarter peal in the method is exceptionally valuable in that it is sufficiently long to enable the band to settle into a good rhythm, and to relax into “auto-pilot” ringing. There are three ways of achieving a quarter peal using standard lengths:

• 2 x 720 = 1,440.
• 720 + 600 = 1,320.
• 720 + 552 = 1,272.

There is no obvious “best” combination of lengths for a quarter peal, it is entirely at the conductor’s assessment of the needs of the band and the experience of the conductor..

Most budding conductors will develop their experience by calling some short touches, and then use 2 of the following:

• 720: Tenor Observation, In & Out, In; repeat twice
• 720: 5th Observation, Out, In & Out; repeat twice
• 600: Tenor Observation, In, In, In & Out, Out, Out
• 552: (720 shortened) Tenor observation: In, Out, In, 4ths & In, In & Out In
• 552: (720 shortened) 5th observation: Out, 4ths; Out, In & Out; Out, In & Out

Conductor’s responsibilities:

• Ring one’s own pair correctly
• Make the calls
• Check that the ringing is correct
• Assist others to overcome trips.

Ringing Kent Correctly:

Earlier sections of this page give details on ringing Kent. Extensive practice cannot and should not be avoided, aim to ring so many quarter peals or peals that you know the method, and can relax enough to think about the calling.

Making the calls:

Make sure you are good at calling Plain Bob Minor, following the coursing order, checking the bells are correct all the way through. Don’t skip this.

a) Familiarise yourself with a number of different short touches of Kent, try them on Abel, see what comes naturally and what is more difficult.

b) Choose a composition that you like. Most people will choose Tenor observation, and call In-Out-In-Out for a 240, and then In-Out-In repeated twice for a three part 720. Call it off 5-6 and get the feel of what the pair does at the calls. Don’t worry if it fires up, don’t try to follow the coursing order, just get confident at making the calls. The exact point to say bob is as the treble rings at backstroke of the 1-2 down dodge.

Check for correctness.

a) About coursing orders.

In treble dominated minor methods coursing orders are a 5 digit representation of the working relationships amongst the bells. It would be more correctly presented as a circle, but we present the order as a serial string of digits with the tacit understanding that the end digit links to the beginning digit. The benefit of string representation is that the observation bell, which is crucial representing the composition is given a fixed place in the string. Strings are also easier than circles to manipulate on a word processor.

The relationships amongst the bells changes with every call, and hence the coursing order is normally transposed to the order following the call leaving the observation bell unchanged in its position in the string. This section challenges the normal approach.

As a touch progresses, knowing the current coursing order is vitally important, and is a skill that should be developed before trying to see the coursing order in action amongst the bells.

b) Follow the coursing order.

The normal advice for calling Tenor In-Out-In is to treat it like Wrong-Home-Wrong for Plain Bob Minor, but use CAB transpositions. If you have the brains of a Cambridge Mathmo, that’s fine. Normal mortals can make life easier, viz:

In-Out-In Tenor observation is exactly the same as Home-Home-4ths for 5ths observation.

So rotate the coursing order to 32465. With 5 observation, its position at the end of the string is fixed, and the transpositions become BCA as follows:

Looking at this to understand how the bells work together:

We now have 5 and 6 coursing together, so bring 2 and 4 to the front of the coursing order string to get 24365. This coursing order takes you to the part end, change row: 142356.
Repeat the process, twice to get the 720.

Following the coursing order in this manner is an easier development step for the budding conductor, than to go straight to CAB transpositions.

c) See the coursing order.

A gradual build-up of skill is easiest, e.g.
Ring the 720.
Call the 720.
Call the 720 and follow the changes of coursing order either by transposition, or by learning them off by heart. Try to see the coursing order when your pair are coursing (50% of the time).

For the trio of bells affected by the bobs (always includes the 6), the bell in the slow runs out at the bob, this is a very useful checkpoint for confirming that a bob is to be called.

Develop the skill of seeing the coursing order in bite-sized chunks, i.e. one bit at a time. In doing so, ring at goldilocks handbell speeds so you can ring your own pair on auto-pilot whilst thinking about the calling and looking for bells in the coursing order.

With good extensive practice, you will follow the coursing order more or less continuously, and thereby know the bells are correct. Kent TB is the best TB method for this.

Assisting others to overcome trips.

If the conductor is ringing with confidence, and making the calls clearly, the band will settle into a rhythm, and trips will be minimal.
Missed places in Kent cause clashes but are not catastrophic beyond that.
Missed slow-work in Kent is more significant, it is worth-while as a ringer, let alone as a conductor to make a mental note of the slow bell at the start of every lead. The bells enter the slow in coursing order.

Sometimes a band simply needs re-assurance that everything is OK, and a simple “Lead End now” at the appropriate point is helpful.

If you do need to speak to get a bell or pair corrected:

• a) Check your facts, make sure that you are right
• b) At the appropriate point tell the ringer(s) exactly what you want to have happen
• c) Re-assure afterwards (e.g. “all ok now”)

Just telling a 3-4 ringer that their pair is crossed is unhelpful, telling them to cross back is equally unhelpful; but telling them, for example, that “4 should be coming down to lead followed by 3” is much more specific, unambiguous, and therefore much more helpful.

Further notes on Conducting Kent TB Minor.

The other popular 720 is to call 5th Observation: Out-In-Out. This can be given the same treatment by re-working the coursing orders for tenor observation, the tenor rings 4ths-Wrong-Wrong.

In many ways this re-working is even better than the re-work for In-Out-In; viz:
Make the bob is a CDAB transposition, but view it as 6 jumping past the first 2 bells in the Coursing Order string to give Out, In, Make it, and then immediately move the dodging pair to the start of the string.

Calling the 600

Tenor In, In, In&Out, Out, Out.

Complib: 600 Kent Treble Bob Minor

Diagram: Composition Layout, 3 x In, 3 x Out.

The calling sequence for the standard 600 is simply Tenor In, In, In & Out, Out, Out with the touch returning to the Plain Course for one lead between the two blocks of 3. The coursing orders are then:

For the 3 calls In, the 4 is a fixed bell, and in the slow each time, replaced by the 6.
For the 3 calls Out, Tenor is in the slow and 5 runs In each time. Follow the coursing orders here by the bell making the bob: 6 out, 5 in, 4 makes the bob, etc.

The presentation of the coursing orders in this manner has the following benefits:

• Clarity of the slow bell preceding each call
• Cyclic work for 5, 3, and 2 for the 3 bobs In, indeed, 5 dodges Home (5-6 Down) at the first Bob just as it would in the standard 720, and makes the bob in the last call In and comes back into coursing behind the tenor, just as it would in the standard 720. So the only call/work that is not found in the standard 720 is where 5 dodges wrong (5-6 Up).
• When calling from 5-6 (recommended), the 3 bobs out leave 5-6 unaffected and the bobs work cycles around 4, 2, and 3.

NB. After the first bob In, 3-4 pair are coursing, with 3 before 4 (i.e. when the bells hunt down, 3 reaches the lead just before 4),. For the rest of the touch, whenever 3-4 are coursing, 4 is before 3.

Shortening the 720s to 552

Both 720s can be shortened to 552 by inserting a shortening course. In each case a single call replaces 2 normal calls and eliminates 168 change-rows.

See below for Complib links to the compositions referenced above: The layouts are from complib and show the tenor as the observation bell.

Tenor In-Out-In

Complib: 720 Kent Treble Bob Minor

Diagram: Composition Layout, 720, In-Out-In

Complib: Related 552 Kent Treble Bob Minor

Diagram: Composition Layout, 720 shortened to 552, In-Out-In; 4ths-In; In-Out-In

Fifth Out-In-Out = Tenor 4ths & twice wrong

Complib: 720 Kent Treble Bob Minor

Diagram: Composition Layout, 720, 4ths & Twice Wrong.

Complib: Related 552 Kent Treble Bob Minor

Diagram: Composition Layout, 720 shortened to 552, 4ths & In, 4ths & 2 x Wrong, 4ths & 2 x Wrong.