Rhythm
This is perhaps the most important thing. From ringing Plain Hunt, you are used to what it feels like to hunt up to the back, slowly; you know how it feels hunting down to the front, quickly, catching the sally just that little bit higher, perhaps taking in some tail end. Now Plain Bob Minor is over 90% Plain Hunt, so keep concentrating on those skills. Then, even if you miss a dodge, you'll never be too far out; if in doubt keep Plain Hunting.

Passing the Treble
Even the most experienced ringers go wrong. I said above that the main thing was to keep Plain Hunting. But what if you don't know which piece of work comes next? Watch where you pass the treble:

Course and After Bells
You will soon notice that the same bell takes you off the lead each time, except for when the treble does - and, from above, then you know to make seconds. And in fact that bell takes you off the back each time too. So that's a useful bell to look out for each time - and it's known as your after bell. Similarly, your course bell is the one that you take off the lead, the same one that was lying behind when you come up to the back. As long as a Bob or Single isn't called, your course and after bells will stay the same. After a call, always try and find which your course and after bells are now - but note that sometimes even after a call, one of them might still be the same as before.

Coursing Order
To take the above one step further, the order in which you pass all the bells apart from the treble stays the same, as long as a Bob isn't called. For instance, ringing the 2nd, the order is 4653. Somewhere in that, you will also meet the treble, but you know where that will be from the table above. For instance, if you are about to do 3-4 down, you expect to meet the treble in 5-6, so if you were on the 2nd, you would hunt up over 46531. But be warned - some people look on this use of the numbers as cheating! I look on it as the first step to conducting...

Handstroke and Backstroke
In Minor, it can be useful to know that, as in Plain Hunt, you always leave the back at a Handstroke. The change in direction at a dodge always comes at a Backstroke. So doing a down dodge (3-4 or 5-6) you will be holding back up at Backstroke, before checking in again to continue hunting down at Handstroke. Doing an up dodge, you will be checking back in at Backstroke, then have to hold up again at the Handstroke.

Bobs and Singles
Bobs and Singles actually only affect one change, before you carry on ringing the normal method again, but the catch is that you will probably jump to a different place on the blue line. So the order of the work needs to be firmly fixed in your mind, so that you can carry on from where the call puts you in the method.

Singles sometimes seem to put people off, possibly because most learn Bobs first. However, they are simpler than Bobs, with only two bells affected by the Single, while the others are unaffected, carrying on with the work they would have done anyway. The two bells affected are those about to dodge in 3-4; instead of doing the dodge, they each make a place and go back the way they came. The bell that would have dodged 3-4 Down makes 2 blows in 3rds then goes back up and the bell that would have dodged 3-4 Up makes 2 blows in 4ths then goes back in to the front.

At a Plain Lead

At a Single

Then what to do next? After making 4ths, the next work is 5-6 Down (then, as usual, 5-6 up and so on). After making 3rds, the next work is Seconds (then 3-4 Down etc.). Note though that if you know where you pass the treble, you can also tell what to do from that.

At a Bob, three bells are affected; not only those in 3-4, but the one that would have made Seconds. The bell that was going to do 3-4 Up does the same as at a Single; makes 4ths, goes back in and does 5-6 Down next time. The other two bells both plain hunt for a lead and try and do the same work again next time round; the bell that was about to make Seconds plain hunts out to the back ("Runs Out"), while the one that was about to do 3-4 Down carries on plain hunting straight down to the front ("Runs In").

At a Plain Lead

At a Bob

So, in summary, we have the following table; everyone else is unaffected.