{"id":11785,"date":"2025-01-04T18:32:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T23:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/?p=11785"},"modified":"2025-01-06T21:37:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T02:37:05","slug":"another-niche-hobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2025\/01\/another-niche-hobby\/","title":{"rendered":"Another niche hobby"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An entry under the category of Niche Hobbies: handbell change ringing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’ve read Dorothy Sayers’s murder mystery Nine Tailors (or watched the TV version), you know what change ringing is. It’s very English: you have a tower with eight or so bells, and a bunch of people stand around and ring the bells in certain defined patterns. If you don’t have a tower full of bells? Then you can use handbells, and you get handbell change ringing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One musician describes handbell change ringing like this: “A series of 4-12 bells are rung in a series of mathematical permutations. Remember work with 12-tone tone rows in 20th-century music theory class? This is similar in practice, but with diatonic notes.” Also, to my ears it sounds much better than most twelve-tone music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click on the image below to see a video of handbell change ringing in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Four<\/a>
Screen grab from the video. Note the looks of intense concentration on the faces of the ringers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the kind of niche hobby that’s going to appeal to a certain kind of person: someone who likes mathematical patterns, someone who likes cooperative efforts in small groups, someone who likes the meditative effect of intense concentration, and so on. OK, I admit it: that someone could probably be me. Since the last thing I need right now is yet another niche hobby, I’m fortunate that there’s no handbell change ringing group near me.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

General info on handbell change ringing:<\/em>
handbell change ringing blog<\/a> \u2014 links to change ringing websites<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Math and change ringing:<\/em>
a bit about math and change ringing<\/a> \u2014 Prof. Sarah Hart of Gresham College gets into group theory and change ringing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instructional materials:<\/em>
quick overview for conventional handbell ensembles<\/a> \u2014 the cross-and-stretch technique<\/a> \u2014 the ringing on bodies technique<\/a> (ringers move, not bells) \u2014 instructional book<\/a> \u2014 handbell change ringing for beginners<\/a> (booklet) \u2014 change ringing for handbells<\/a> (more advanced) \u2014 instructional website<\/a> \u2014 handbell change ringing online simulator<\/a> (for solo practice) \u2014 methods for three bell ringing<\/a> (with a tenor behind, that would be 4 bells = 2 handbell ringers) \u2014 cross and stretch demonstrated<\/a> (the video with stuffed animals is particularly clear, believe it or not)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance videos:<\/em>
3 people<\/a> (easy to follow the changes) \u2014 blindfold handbell change ringing<\/a> \u2014 4 person cross and stretch<\/a> (watch closely) \u2014 6 person cross and stretch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An entry under the category of Niche Hobbies: handbell change ringing. If you’ve read Dorothy Sayers’s murder mystery Nine Tailors (or watched the TV version), you know what change ringing is. It’s very English: you have a tower with eight or so bells, and a bunch of people stand around and ring the bells in … Continue reading “Another niche hobby”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1126,1125],"class_list":["post-11785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musical-arts","tag-handbells","tag-niche-hobbies-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11785"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11798,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11785\/revisions\/11798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}