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Basics

Your course and after bells

For Minimus, there are:

1. Your bell
2. Your course bell (the bell that arrives at leads and at back immediately before you, except when the treble does so)
3. Your after bell (the bell that arrives at leads and at back immediately after you, except when the treble does so)
4. The treble

The coursing order is 2-4-3:

Your course bell is the bell immediately before you in the coursing order; your after bell is the bell immediately after you in the coursing order.

Landmark is my term, not a standard one in ringing

The three landmarks are:

1. Dodge 3‑4 Down
   

   Scissors dodge

   You dodge down (in) with your after bell in 4-3:

   1. you ring in 4ths;
   2. then in 3rds (with your after bell in 4ths);
   3. then step back to 4ths (trading places with your after bell which is now in 3rds);
   4. and finally continue down in 3rds.

   The dodges in Plain Bob are scissors dodges, in which you swap places with the other bell for all four strokes.

   When you are doing Dodge 3‑4 Down, your after bell is doing its Dodge 3‑4 Up.

2. Dodge 3‑4 Up

   You dodge up (out) with your course bell in 4-3:

   1. you ring in 3rds;
   2. then in 4ths (with your course bell in 3rds);
   3. then step back to 3rds (trading places with your course bell which is now in 4ths);
   4. 

      Make 2nds

      and finally continue down in 4ths.

   When you are doing Dodge 3‑4 Up your after bell is doing its Dodge 3‑4 Down.

3. Make 2nds

   After ringing your two usual blows in leads, you ring two successive blows in 2nds, then back to leads for two more blows.

   You always Make 2nds over the treble in Plain Bob.

The three landmarks occur in this rotation, with the beginning point depending on your bell.

1. You hunt out to the back, strike two blows at the back, then hunt in, interposing Dodge 3‑4 Down on your way in.
2. You strike two blows at lead, then hunt out, interposing Dodge 3‑4 Up on your way out; the usual two blows at the back, then hunt in.
3. You strike two blows at lead, then Make 2nds.

The Sequence of Landmarks and Passing the Treble

The treble hunts straight out and straight in, with a period of 8 strokes; the treble makes 3 cycles between rounds. The other bells interrupt their hunting with dodges and making 2nds, so it takes them longer: 10 strokes, plus an extra 4 strokes while Making 2nds, and they make only 2 cycles between rounds (plus Making 2nds). Consequently each other bell passes the treble six times between rounds (2 hunting up and 2 hunting down, plus 1 each way for Making 2nds).

The clock for Plain Bob Minimus

This information is traditionally summarized by the clock for this method, shown at right.

Whenever any bell is in a landmark, all the other bells (except the treble) are also in their own landmarks:

1. Whenever a bell is Dodging 3‑4 Down, it is dodging with its after bell which is Dodging 3‑4 Up.
2. Its course bell is Making 2nds under it.

The sequence of places

You may wish to memorize the sequence of places. If so, when you recite them to yourself, look to the right at each place in which you are over the treble (= following the treble), so you will habitually look to the right (toward the treble) at the right points in the sequence when you are ringing too.

In this list, places in which you are over the treble are underlined. The background color indicates the stroke: white for handstrokes, gray for backstrokes, and dark gray for lead end backstrokes.

The list applies to all the working bells:

• If you wish to imagine yourself ringing the 2, start with the 2nds work 1 1 2 3 … (because the 2 begins from 2nds in rounds).
• If you wish to imagine yourself ringing the 4, start with the 4ths work 3 2 1 1 … (because the 4 begins from 4ths in rounds).
• If you wish to imagine yourself ringing the 3, start with the 3rds work 4 4 3 2 … (because the 3 begins from 3rds in rounds).

The sequence repeats over and over, just like ringing Plain Bob does. No matter where you start from, when you get to the end of the sequence 1 1 2 2 loop back to the beginning 1 1 2 3 … and keep going.

Useful Facts

1. You-treble-…

   Treble-you-…

   Treble-you-…

   You-treble-…
   You Make 2nds over the treble.
   1. The treble turns you before you Make 2nds.
   2. You turn the treble after you Make 2nds.

   (Your course and after bells are dodging over you.)

2. Course-you-…

   You-course-…

   You-after-…

   After-you-…
   You always turn your course bell at the front
   • = take your course bell off lead
   • = ring in 2nds (backstroke) over your course bell before ringing your first lead (handstroke)

   except before you Make 2nds.

3. Course-you-…

   You-course-…

   You-after-…

   After-you-…
   You are always turned by your after bell at the front
   • = your after bell takes you off lead
   • = ring in 2nds (handstroke) over your after bell after ringing your second lead (backstroke)

   except after you Make 2nds.

4. Dodge 3‑4 Down

   course-treble-after-you-…

   treble-course-you-after-…

   treble-course-after-you-…

   course-treble-you-after-…
   You always Dodge 3‑4 Down with your after bell.
   1. You are over your course bell for the first stroke under your after bell (handstroke).
   2. You are over the treble as the dodge ends (handstroke).

   (Your course bell is making 2nds over the treble under your dodge.)

   You can remember that you dodge down with your after bell by the fact that you have already struck your two blows at the back before the dodge, when the other bell comes to the back after you.
5. Dodge 3‑4 Up

   after-treble-you-course-…

   treble-after-course-you-…

   treble-after-you-course-…

   after-treble-course-you-…
   You always Dodge 3‑4 Up with your course bell.
   1. You are over the treble as the dodge begins (backstroke) with your first stroke under your course bell.
   2. You are over your after bell for the second stroke under your course bell (handstroke).

   (Your after bell is making 2nds over the treble under your dodge.)

   You can remember that you dodge up with your course bell by the fact that you are just coming to the back for the dodge, while the other bell was already there before you (thus your course bell).

6. You are always over your course bell, after bell, or the treble at the back in the following sequence:
   1. Before Dodge 3‑4 Down, you are at the back over treble-after.
   2. After Dodge 3‑4 Up, you are at the back over course-treble.
7. Several of the above facts are a consequence of this overall fact:

   You always pass the other working bells in the coursing order (2-4-3) when hunting out and when hunting in, with the treble inserted at a point that depends on where you are among the landmarks.

   Your bell	passes (out or in)
   2	4-3
   3	2-4
   4	3-2

   When you dodge, you step back in the coursing order to make the dodge. For example, the 2 hunting out to the back and making its Dodge 3‑4 Down follows 4-3-1-4-3-4-1-3, stepping back to follow the 4 a second time before following the treble again.

Why learn all these?

Well, you don't have to, if you can always remember your place and ring in it perfectly. But human ringers find it helpful to memorize at least some of these (and some ringers memorize nearly all of them). Plus you'll note that many of these are the same for Plain Bob on any number of bells so you only have to memorize them once for all, and the others have analogues for Plain Bob on other numbers of bells.

Also, if you want to be able to tell what's going wrong when something goes wrong, these will give you a good handle to start with, short of memorizing the entire chart.

Example: the 2

(The coursing order is 2-4-3)

The 2's first landmark is Dodge 3‑4 Down.

Example: the 3

(The coursing order is 2-4-3)

The 3's first landmark is Make 2nds.

• thomas · alspaugh @ acm · org
• 
• 2019May11Sa10:37
• Attribution