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.

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

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

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.