Most towers teach Plain Bob Doubles after Plain Hunt. Here’s why you should consider teaching Grandsire Doubles first.
The step up from a lead of Plain Hunt to a plain course of Bob Doubles on the treble is a big one: there’s one familiar lead, then it’s out into the unknown for three horribly unfamiliar leads. Grandsire Doubles gets the new stuff over first, and it’s very easy new stuff because the first lead involves ringing over 2,3,4 and 5 in that order. ‘How’s that going to help their ropesight?’ I hear the purists cry. ‘You musn’t do it by numbers!’ I disagree. Any half intelligent learner will pick the numbers up sooner or later anyway, and no harm is done. Learning to ring is not easy and your learners need all the help they can get. They learn nothing by floundering around.
Now, after a really nice easy start, in the second lead comes the ropesight lesson, only it’s not as hard as Plain Bob because, in Grandsire, you always start with the second. That only leaves three bells to sort out. OK, in Plain Bob, you always start with the bell you finish with; but that’s a somewhat harder concept, and the remaining three bells are not always visually adjacent to each other, for instance, if the 3rd has just made seconds.
The third and final lead is exactly like the Plain Hunt they know already, so they can finish in a blaze of glory rather than covered in confusion. There’s a bonus too, because, as it’s 10 changes shorter than Plain Bob, they can have four courses of Grandsire for every three of Plain Bob.
What do they do when they can ring a plain course? In Plain Bob, the next stage is to ring the treble to a touch; but expect fun and games as soon as the first bob is called. Which bell do they start with now? And, suddenly, all the bells are in the ‘wrong’ order. Help! But, in Grandsire, all you need to do is move them off the treble and onto the second. There are still only three leads to cope with and they always know where to pass the treble so there are only three other bells to worry about. It’s also excellent preparation for ringing ‘inside’.
I’m not going to waste much space on the old nonsense about Grandsire not leading anywhere. Even if that’s true (which it isn’t, as all methods contain hunting, dodging and place making), your learners don’t know that; they just want to be ringing changes confidently by the shortest possible route. You can always teach them Plain Bob next after Grandsire (if you must) but why not move straight on to the King of Methods, Stedman? There is no better preparation for Stedman than Grandsire and nothing offers more variety or sounds better for Sunday Service than Stedman.
Jeff Ladd