Demonstration of Handbell ringing

A group of 4 bell ringers will demonstrate the Art of Ringing on Handbells in St John's Church. This will not be Tunes, but what is known as 'scientific' ringing where there are intricate patterns created by swapping the order of the bells according to preset rules.

Bell Ringing is an unusual musical skill. Most musicians play an instrument with all of the necessary notes. With bells, each note is played by a different person. The skill is in getting each person to 'play' his note at the right time to make the desired sound. On Tower bells, it is one person per note. With Handbells, it is usually two, one in each hand., therefore being responsible for sounding two notes at the correct time.
Handbells can be used to play Tunes, or in the case of the FEVA demonstration, to ring what is called a 'method' - this is a set of rules which determine the order in which the bells sound. Just to complicate things, this requires a 'row' where each bells sounds once and once only, followed by another 'row' with each bell sounding once and once only, but in a different order from the previous 'row'. The idea is to play as many different 'rows' in a performance.