Miscellaneous Touches
Contents
These first appeared in the Surrey Assn (Northern District) Newsletter.
- Golden Oldies
- Unusual Splices
Golden Oldies
Here's a selection of some of my favourite 'touches' or, as some would say,
'golden oldies'.
I have made a selection of compositions for well-known minor, triples and
caters methods which are not only easy to learn and call, but also contain
some interesting music.
72 or 144 Plain Bob Minor
Calling one bell (4, 5 or 6) to make the bob twice gives a short touch of
72 changes. Double this up by adding a single at the end, then repeat, to
give 144. To add spice, you can call a different bell can make the bob in
each part. My favourite combination is to call the 5th to make a bob in
part 1 and the 6th in part 2, which gives a bonus of Queens and Tittums music.
23456 24356
-23564 45263 Tittums
36245 -45632
64352 53426
-64523 32564 Queens
42635 -32645
S24356 S23456
167 Cambridge S. Minor
Two interesting 'twin' touches of Cambridge Minor are:
- - P - P P...
and P P - P - -...
Beware: these touches do not come round in the normal place! The '...'
notation means that the touch continues for almost one more lead, and it
then comes round at the handstroke of the treble's full lead. They are
almost (but not quite) 7 leads long.
96 or 192 London S. Minor
The technique of calling a bell to make the bob twice (as used for Plain Bob
above) can also be used in many other methods, including London.
A 4-lead touch of 96 changes is made by calling the 2nd or 4th to make the
bob twice (- P - P or P - P -).
23456 or 23456
-64235 42635
26543 -56423
-35264 45362
23456 -23456
One way of extending these is to 'insert' one into the other to give a touch
of 192 changes, like this:
- P - P 'inserted' into the middle of P - P - becomes P - - P - P P -.
There are actually 6 ways of doing this, resulting in 6 different touches,
all rotations of each other:
1. P - - P - P P -
2. - - P - P P - P
3. - P - P P - P -
4. P - P P - P - -
5. - P P - P - - P
6. P P - P - - P -
192 Stedman Triples
Roydon Davies (a President of the Surrey Association) taught me this musical
touch: 7, 11, 12, 14, 15 repeat. Call it from the 7th like this:
- Bob at the last whole turn (position 7).
- A pair of bobs in 6-7 down (when dodging with the 4th), which gives a
block of Tittums-type music.
- A pair of bobs two sixes later (at the end of 4-5 down, and when running
out quick) where 4 and 6 are dodging together in 6-7, which gives a block of
9 musical 468's (Queens- and Whittingtons-type music).
And repeat.
180 Grandsire Caters
A good touch on outings to 10-bell towers is 10 leads called as: - P - P S
(repeat), which has the delightful 'rollercoaster' row (1326549870) halfway.
23456789
- 75293846
79582634
- 68749352
64837295
S 32654987
repeat
Unusual Splices
Grandsire Doubles & Cambridge S. Minor
When splicing an odd-bell method with an even-bell method, e.g.
Doubles and Minor, one bell will be ringing 'behind' in the odd-bell method.
This bell may, or may not, be the Tenor, so watch out!
For example, when changing from Minor to Doubles, it is the bell in 6ths
place at the change of method which rings behind until the method changes
back to Minor, where it then starts with 6ths place bell of the new method.
Try these for starters:
136 changes. 220 changes.
(40 G, 96 C) (100 G, 120 C)
23456 23456
Grand - 45236 Camb - 35642
Camb - 53624 Grand 34562
Grand - 62534 Grand - 56342
Camb S 32456
Repeat. 5 part.
Little & Original Minor
Original is a very simple method, being just 'plain hunt with bobs in',
however its simplicity can be deceiving. For the composer/conductor, the
method is a pure coursing order, but calls must be made so frequently that
compositions are often complex and following the coursing orders is not easy.
For the rest of the band, Original demands high levels of concentration -
it is very easy to fall asleep and try to make a bob that wasn't even called!
One notable quality is that it is possible to obtain true 720's containing
Little by splicing it with Original, to obtain enough of the rows with the
treble in 5-6. Here's an example of what you can do:
96 Little & Original Minor
Orig:123456 462351 Little:156342
214365 643215 513624
241635 -634251 531264
426153 362415 352146
462513 -326451 325164
645231 234615 231546
-654213 -243651 213456
562431 426315 124365
-526413 462135 -142356
254631 641253
-245613 614523 Repeat twice
426531 165432
462351 156342
Grandsire Triples & Bristol S. Major
This touch combines the musical simplicity of Grandsire (and the regular
rhythm of a tenor behind) with the fast-moving excitement of Bristol.
It presents an additional challenge of a tricky change of method from
Grandsire into Bristol and vice-versa. It is a 3 part touch, which uses the
fact that the transposition ('X') from Rounds to Queens is the same as from
Queens to Tittums and from Tittums back to Rounds.
Rounds 12345678 --'X'-> Queens 13572468 --'X'-> Tittums 15263748
In the Grandsire sections, the tenor is always ringing 'behind' in 8ths
place. In the Bristol sections, it rings 8ths place bell.
264 Grandsire Triples & Bristol S. Major
2345678
Grandsire 2537468
Bristol S 2357468
Grandsire S 7624358
Grandsire 7465238
Grandsire - 3572468
Repeat twice (3 parts). 168 Grandsire, 96 Bristol.
Contains Queens, Tittums, 22 c.r.u.s, 12 x 468s and is also rather false!
Plain & Little Bob Major
This is a very useful touch obtained by taking the classic "W 3B M H" touch
for Plain Bob, then shortening it by replacing some leads with Little Bob.
This has the additional benefit of introducing more 678 roll-ups.
112 Plain & Little Bob Major
2345678
Plain - 2357486
Little 4562837
Little - 7864352
Plain - 7845623
Plain - 7852436
Little 4567382
Little - 2364857
Plain - 2345678
This page created by Stephen Theobald.
Last updated 7th Jan 2000.