Conducting Plain Bob Doubles: See The Complete Picture

There are a number of ways to learn the basics of conducting and ways to apply them. Rather than piecing it all together a little at a time, I offer a way to see the whole picture at once. Every part from the basic coursing orders to choosing practice touches and composing your own in your head on the spot.

Coursing Order

The grounding pattern to everything is of course the coursing order for the plain course. It is cyclical...

... 532453245324532453245324532453245 ...

How you view the order usually depends on the bell you are ringing or the bell that is unaffected in the touch (if one is). Accept viewing the order from your bell regardless of whom is affected by calls. Once you have an order starting from your bell, you may then omit your bell to have a simple order containing only the remaining three.

Order Per Bell

From the	Complete Order	Working Order
2	2453	453
3	3245	245
4	4532	532
5	5324	324

Based on this coursing order you have complete control over everything.

Effects of Calls

In Plain Bob Doubles there are two calls available, bob & single. With these calls there are only four changes you can make to the three-bell coursing order. Memorise this table and you will have a masterful control available from your head.

Transpositions

Name	Effect	Description	Bob	Single
Pop	abc -> bca	Pop the first one from the front.	H	B
Push	abc -> cab	Push the last one onto the front.	4	I
Front	abc -> bac	Swap the front pair.	I	4
Back	abc -> acb	Swap the back pair.	B	H

In its simplest form, this is what you need to remember. Use whatever names suit your memory if these aren't easy for you to remember.

Call Effects

Effect	Calls
Pop	H / sB
Push	4 / sI
Front	I / s4
Back	B / sH

From that pattern you can compose any practice touch you like on-the-fly.

Further to that, you can apply at least one coursing order change-pattern: An unaffected bell cycles to the right, the affected bells are static.

X unaffected: xyz -> yxz -> yzx -> xyz

If you want to call a bell unaffected, and you are ringing a different bell, you can quickly generate the touch in your head knowing exactly where you will make the calls.

So, ringing the 3, calling the 2 unaffected:

3245 3425 Front (I / s4) 3452 Back (B / sH) 3245 Push (4 / sI)

Which means the standard 120 from the 3rd with the 2 unaffected is , IB4 (In, Out, Make), or you can play with it by swapping in singles as you please. Any of the following will still come round and still leave the 2 unaffected, as called from the 3rd:

IB4 - True 120 IBsI - True 80 IsH4 - True 80 IsHsI- True 80 s4B4 - False 120 s4BsI - True 80 s4sH4 - False 120 s4sHsI - True 120