In this post I present a way of understanding Cambridge Surprise Minor that will make it easier to learn Cambridge on more bells. I don’t necessarily expect this explanation to be a direct help with actually ringing the method—it’s more to help remember the line, which should in turn help you ring it! If you’re trying to memorize a sentence, it’s probably much easier if you actually understand the sentence. The theory here is that understanding how Cambridge works overall will help the line make sense, so it will be easier to remember.
A Preface about Place Bells
Throughout this post I will refer frequently to the place bells of Cambridge Surprise Minor. Bob Wallis’s Cambridge tutorial is a very good introduction to the method, one place bell at a time, and lists many of the reasons learning methods by place bells is recommended.
Here is a quick version of my own unconventional explanation of what place bells are:
Basically all commonly rung methods have a structure kind of like the song Frère Jacques. This song can be sung in a round, so that four people can all sing the exact same thing and still produce harmony. The usual strategy is to stagger the entrances, and once everyone has joined in there will be four rotations of the tune going at once. You could achieve the same effect by having everyone begin at the same time, but starting at different points in the tune. This is basically how methods work. All the working bells ring the same thing—a line or a pattern of rhythms rather than a tune—but they start at different points along the line. The line segments from one bell’s starting point to the next bell’s starting point are called place bells, and they are named by the bell number that begins with that segment. The 2 will always start out as 2nds place bell, but then it will move on to another place bell—in Cambridge, 6ths place bell, which is the segment of line that the 6 rings first. When you see a number in a circle beside a method diagram, such as in common books or on Mobel (or in images in this post!), that is an indication of the place bell at that point in the line.
Another very common feature of methods is palindromic symmetry. In methods with an odd number of working bells, this means one place bell will be a palindrome, the same forwards and backwards. This is called the pivot bell, and in Cambridge it’s 3rds place bell (on any number of bells). The other place bells will come in pairs where one line is the reverse of the other.
2nds and 5ths place bells are reverses of each other:
6ths and 4ths place bells are reverses of each other:
How Cambridge Works
In Cambridge, the treble treble bob hunts. The inside or working bells also treble bob hunt, but out of sync with the treble. When the treble dodges, most of the other bells hunt, and when the treble hunts, most of the other bells dodges.
However, for the working bells to pass the treble (whether they dodge with the treble or not), they have to align with the treble. In fact, there are usually two adjustments every time a working bell meets the treble: first the treble bobbing has to synchronize with the treble to allow the bell to pass, and then after passing the treble the bell has to get out of sync again to align with everyone else.
Starts
The treble starts with a dodge, so the 2 has to dodge with it.
All the other bells are offset from the treble, so they begin by hunting.
This is hunting in 3rds place and above, so the 4 (4ths place bell) makes 3rds instead of going all the way down to lead.
All the other bells ring three blows exactly like beginning plain hunt.
How to offset treble bobbing
Treble bob hunting involves alternating whole pulls: one hunting and then one dodging. (Technically the dodge is just one blow, always a backstroke in this case, but I find it easier to think in whole pulls: one pure hunting and then one with a dodge.) In order to offset your treble bobbing before and after you meet the treble, you have to hunt two whole pulls in a row OR dodge two whole pulls in a row.
In Cambridge (on any number of bells) I think of there being three distinct strategies for changing the alignment of treble bobbing:
- dodge dodge (double dodge)
- actually hunt hunt (for example, hunt 5-4 and then 3-2)
- place place (hunt hunt if you’re only hunting on two)
Now I’m going to look at how each of these strategies appears in Cambridge.
Dodge Dodge
Double dodges ONLY occur at the back!
On any number of bells, 3rds place bell begins by treble bob hunting, starting with hunting, until it gets to the back. On minor that’s not a lot of treble bobbing, but thinking of it this way is helpful for moving to major and beyond!
Once 3rds place bell gets to the back, it double dodges in order to synchronize with the treble. It then basically does treble bob hunt on two with the treble: lie so the treble can come to the back (hunt), dodge down with the treble (dodge), make the penultimate place (on minor, 5ths) under the treble (hunt), dodge up with the treble (dodge), lie at the back so the treble can get away (hunt). Now that the treble’s gone, the 3 double dodges again to get out of sync with the treble, then resumes treble bobbing.
The other place bells that double dodge (at the back) are 2nds and 5ths place bells. The 5 double dodges down and then passes the treble, while the 2 does the reverse: pass the treble, then double dodge up. This is true for Cambridge on any number of bells. These two place bells always pass the treble without dodging with it, in the highest place where it’s possible to do that. On minor that’s 4-5, on major 6-7, on royal 8-9, etc.
Actually Hunt Hunt
This means skipping a dodge in your treble bobbing. Usually you skip two—one before passing the treble, and one after.
6ths place bell begins in precisely this way.
Now, you may think I’ve taken a nice stretch of plain hunting and claimed that it’s actually treble bob hunting with missing dodges. This is a weird thing to claim particularly on minor. But I have multiple reasons!
It’s easy to dismiss the plain hunting portions of Cambridge Surprise Minor in your efforts to learn the long sections where you stay in the same two places. But as important as those long segments are, if you mess them up other ringers can probably help you out right away. If you forget to simply hunt to the front or back, you’re likely to quickly end up very far away from where you should be. So it’s worth paying attention to the hunting bits even if they look easy. I think understanding why they’re there, and knowing that you’ll always pass the treble in the middle of them, can help you remember when you get to just hunt!
The pattern of treble bob hunting, missing two dodges, then treble bobbing again is much easier to see on more bells, because there’s more space for the treble bobbing. All of the place bells except 2nds, 3rds, and 5ths miss two dodges. On minor that only leaves 6ths and 4ths place bells, but on maximus there are eight bells that do this! It’s much easier to summarize the dodges those bells do as just treble bob hunting, and distinguish them individually by the dodges they miss.
Place Place
This is what gives rise to the feature known as Cambridge places. Here is my annotated diagram of 4ths place bell:
Cambridge places always have a dodge with the treble in the middle. They are also usually presented as beginning and ending with a dodge, but these dodges occur naturally as part of treble bob hunting. There is no beginning dodge shown in the diagram above because that dodge is what causes a bell to become 4ths place bell. 4ths place bell begins with the first place of Cambridge places, not the dodge.
2nds place bell: all the strategies!
In order, 2nds place bell has: place place, hunt hunt, dodge dodge.
Here’s a diagram:
Summarizing the Method
If you’re performing in a play and have to memorize a lot of lines, it’s probably helpful to start by learning the overall story of the play. A similar approach is useful for methods. Plain Bob, for example, is mostly plain hunting, with something different happening (mostly dodges) when the treble leads. I could also summarize the sequence of leadends in Plain Bob as “up the down dodges, then down the up dodges (then make 2nds)”.
Cambridge is treble bob hunting, with bits where you instead double dodge, miss a dodge or two, or ring Cambridge places.
3rds place bell only has one portion that’s not just treble bob hunting: double dodging at the back, plus a place under the treble when it lies at the back.
2nds and 5ths place bells basically have all three strategies—the Cambridge frontwork is like half of Cambridge places, the last dodge before the back will be missed, and there will be a double dodge at the back.
All the other place bells will either miss two dodges on the way down and then ring Cambridge places up, or ring Cambridge places down and then miss two dodges on the way up.
If I haven’t rung Cambridge for a while and need a quick refresher, I look at very specific parts of each place bell: which dodges does it miss and where does it do Cambridge places? It’s like remembering the overall story of the play and just needing to remind myself of some exact lines.
Want even more?
I have an older page about Double Court and Cambridge Surprise that looks more at what I’d call the “bird’s-eye-view” of the methods, the grid or what everyone is doing, rather than individual bell lines. If you want even more, particularly looking at Cambridge places, check it out: https://www.changeringing.net/court.
Among Sallies and Bobs 