Improvising Touches

Improvising touches

The first time I saw someone improvise a touch of spliced Cambridge, Plain Bob, and Little Bob, I was absolutely transfixed; it was something I’d never seen done before and hadn’t realized could be done at all. But even though I thought it was magical at the time (and I still think it requires a good deal of skill and experience!), I later learned that improvising touches was in fact accessible to mere mortals. This section is all about giving you the skills you need to improvise and conduct touches. Are these skills strictly necessary to being a conductor? No, probably not. Are they fun? I think so! And they give you great practice at lots of the skills you use for conducting.

When thinking about touch improvisation, I consider two main strategies. There may be others — I’m sure there are — but these are two that I know about.

Improvising touches using leadhead groups

As you might imagine, a good deal of method knowledge is required to improvised touches. But it might not be the sort of method knowledge that you’re used to discussing in the tower. Here we’ll talk about a new feature of methods that has to do with their leadheads. To get started, let’s closely examine the plain course of Plain Bob Minor and the plain course of Cambridge Surprise Minor.

Look at the leadheads (the treble’s backstroke lead; the bit after the dashed line in each column). Here they are in order: 135264, 156342, 164523, 142635, and rounds. Now let’s look at the Cambridge leadheads:

Here they are in order: 156342, 142635, 135264, 164523, and rounds.

Notice anything? That’s right: they are the same leadheads, just in a different order! In particular, when you’ve rung two leads of Plain Bob, you get to 156342, which is the same as when you’ve rung only one lead of Cambridge.

This type of relationship between leadheads of different methods is very common. Many, if not most, methods have what are called “Plain Bob leadheads,” which means they have the same leadheads as Plain Bob (at whatever stage), but they may or may not be in a different order.

We can use this relationship to build up touches very quickly. Let’s define Plain Bob as a “+1” method, because when you ring one lead of Plain Bob, you get to the first leadhead of Plain Bob (after rounds). Then, Cambridge must be a “+2” method, because when you ring one lead of Cambridge, you get to the second leadhead of Plain Bob.

The plain course of Plain Bob Minor has 5 leads; if you ring 5 leads of Plain Bob in a row with no calls, you’ll get from rounds back to rounds. The crucial bit is this: you can substitute two leads of Plain Bob for one lead of Cambridge and still come round. Let’s try another visual:

(clock visual?)

Here’s how the Framework talks about leadhead grouping. It says: “Methods that have a first leadhead that is the same as one of the leadheads found in the Plain Course of Plain Bob or Grandsire have been assigned a code according to the order in which the leadheads occur in its Plain Course. They are a useful shorthand for communicating the Lead order of a Method.” If you’ve ever looked under “Details” on the Blueline’s Method Library, the leadhead code is given along with other interesting facts. Plain Bob, as the “base” method, has a code of a written in brackets next to the (first) leadhead.

This definition is a little technical. If it made sense to you first go, feel free to skip this paragraph; otherwise I’ll go through in detail. Plain Bob has some of the most recognizable leadheads (because most of us ring a lot of Plain Bob!). If you recall from the Basic Terminology section of Chapter 1, a leadhead in Plain Bob is the row of the treble’s backstroke lead. Plain Bob Major has 7 leadheads, because there are 7 working bells.1 Plain Bob Doubles only has 4 leadheads. Plain Bob Maximus has 11. Other methods have leadheads too. Often, they have the same leadheads as Plain Bob (maybe in a different order), for a mixture of historical and mathematical reasons. These methods that share the leadheads but not necessarily the order of the leadheads are assigned a code. The codes indicate how the order of the leadheads relate to the Plain Bob order. Methods with the code of a have the exact same leadheads in the exactly same order. These codes are then put together into groups, based on whether the stage is even or odd and what the lead end place notation is; the a group, for instance, is all even-stage methods with seconds at the lead end.

Below, you can see a table that lists some of the possible leadhead codes and how they correspond to Plain Bob. It is a partial reproduction of a table from the Framework page about the same.

Plain Bob Leadhead Codes for Even Stage Methods with 12 Leadend Minimus Minor Major
a 1342 135264 13527486
b 156342 15738264
c 17856342
d 18674523
e 164523 16482735
f 1423 142635 14263857

This table can prove extremely useful when creating spliced touches of methods. If you know that all of the methods you want to splice have code a, it is likely that you can ring a touch of spliced with no calls where you switch in and out of the different code a methods every lead, and it will come round in the same time as the plain course.2

A trickier (but maybe more fun) exercise is looping together methods with different codes. Let’s do an example with Plain Bob Minor and Cambridge Surprise Minor. We know that Plain Bob Minor is code a because Plain Bob is always code a; what code does Cambridge Surprise Minor have?

Exercise

If you had to guess, or felt uncertain about why you got the right answer, consult the blueline for Cambridge Surprise Minor. Check what the first leadhead is (after rounds), and then look the code up in the table. You know you can use the table because Cambridge Surprise Minor is an even-bell method with seconds at the leadend. Another way to tell is by using place bell knowledge, which I won’t go into depth about here. But if you know that 2nds place bell becomes 6ths place bell, you know that the leadhead with the 2 in 6ths place is the first leadhead and then you can look up the code in the table.

Alright, we’ve got this far: we know that Plain Bob is code a and Cambridge Surprise Minor is code b. How does this help us create a touch?

Improvising touches using coursing orders

Exercises

Write this

Know your goals. Practise is always easier when you’re practising with a goal. Just compare the amount of time the average undergraduate studies for exams during exam week to the amount of studying happening the rest of the year! Do you have any goals for improvisation, or for conducting in general? Or do you need to set some, or organize some ringing to prompt yourself into action? Common advice is to set goals that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

Think fast

“Practising improvisation” may sound like a little bit of an oxymoron, but it’s perfectly possible to do.

You can practice thinking on your feet. Write down a few methods that you’re comfortable with on scraps of paper. Toss the scraps into a hat then pick out two or more. See if you can quickly compose a true touch using just those methods. Try not to parrot a touch you already know! Some options for methods to start: Plain Bob, Kent, Cambridge, or Little Bob. Or anything else! You don’t need to be able to ring these methods. You just need to know the lead head groups or the coursing orders.

Think slow

Rather than putting the pressure on speed, you can also just sit down with a few of your favorite methods and tinker out a composition. Then, see if you can make it a multi-part composition. How musical can you make it? Can you add a method, or substitute one? This deliberate practice and editing process will, over time, expand your repertoire and make it easier for you to improvise more complex touches.

Notes

  1. And because it’s not differential, etc, etc. ↩︎

  2. A couple of caveats here. If your methods are code a but have a different line for the treble (e.g. treble bob hunting instead of plain hunting, or hunting only to 2 or 4) then obviously the resultant touch won’t be exactly the same length as a plain course of any of the methods. The more important caveat is that truth is not guaranteed, even though coming round is. If you care about the truth of your multi-method touch, it is critical that you either have enough knowledge of the methods to know that they are mutually true against each other, or that you check in advance. If you don’t care (and many don’t, especially for practice night), ring as you will! ↩︎