Our virtual #bellringing practices on a Thursday evening with friends and family have had a bit of a progressive plan. We started off with some simple “plain” minor methods i.e. where the treble plain hunts and worked our way up to surprise minor and then started introducing an 8 bell method as well. We’ve had methods of the month for the past few months so we can consolidate our learning.
February saw us ringing York Surprise Minor and Kent Treble Bob Major, and for March we’re moving on to Durham Surprise Minor and Oxford Treble Bob Major.
A lot f the methods we played with I’ve never rung before, and some of the rest of the band haven’t either. Its been quite a fascinating experiment. Some of these methods I never would have thought that I’d ever ring. I dare say, that when we get back to ringing in the real world, I’m unlikely to ring those methods in a tower. The places we ring at regular just don’t ring that sort of thing.
I would like to try and ring them in a proper tower, but suspect that that might require some engineering to get the right band and the right time.
Some methods are transitory, they are stepping stones that help you understand more complex methods, and the likelihood of going back to them on a regular basis is minimal. Some are very similar and are good to be spliced together for variation, you just need to remember which one is which.
My brain capacity isn’t good enough to retain all of these, so I suspect that if we were to try to ring them in a tower, I would have to relearn them all over again.
Still, its good fun, stretching the brain and having a go at things we don’t normally ring.
Bells, Bakes & Bettering Myself 
Totally agree. But the enjoyment and mutual support is great. Thanks for the opportunity even if some days are better than others 😄😉🔔
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We’ve found that quite often with a method that is new to many but some of us have rung before (York S Minor a good example) that it is easier to ring in a real tower than in Ringing Room. That may be related to the fact that any session with UK and OZ virtual ringers is going to have some people with significant time-lags. (We didn’t realise how good Ringing Room could be until we shifted to the Singapore server, but that is less good for UK ringers). I think it is that you have to keep going and develop a physical rhythm on a real bell that doesn’t apply in RR. BTW if you want a really fun and somewhat but not excessively challenging method, try Double Dunkirk Minor. Stedman frontwork on the front three and reversed Stedman frontwork on the back three, and (at least for us, as we didn’t realise that it was a defined method until after we’d rung it) the work that the treble ends up doing came as a bit of a surprise!
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