Only if they're in tune! I think ours are a bit flat, but I'll test them against the tuner. We have a diatonic twelve from F, with a few semitones.

we could do treble bob maximus, and double every note

I was going to add that, but then forgot lol. I have a feeling ours are a bit flat too, so you never know, they could be in tune with each other.

Ooops, I somehow managed to miss the C off middle C

is there anyway of rectifiying an out of tune handbell?

Anyway, who says we need to ring anything other than rounds?!
(i love rounds)

You can make bells flatter by removing metal from the inside, but you can't make them sharper.

aah right.

I should add that this is only done by bellfounders. Don't try this at home, folks.

*begins dismantaling the doorbell*

I think it was more to do with only meeting for about 4 weeks per term, being 9 and having to fit both junior and senior groups into 1 lunchtime.

I don't remember it being particularly hard though there was a certain knack about getting your bell to sound at exactly the right time and only once. We weren't doing anything from music so the group playing the tune were struggling a bit to remember what order and what hand to play next!

If there's anything not in copyright, can someone clued up about handbell music post an example of the sort of thing we'd be playing?

Ooops, I missed this post yesterday.

What usually happens with us is that you have a part number, rather than a set pair of bells, so if you have a high-up piece, everyone just gets higher bells. (eg I'm no.5, which can be anything between f above middle c and the d above that depending of the piece, but most often A and Bb/B)

It looks like we're probably going to have more people than parts anyway, so there's going to be some degree of taking turns going on as it is, so I wouldn't worry too much about the 'low people' feeling left out.

The bottom bells are lovely. From about middle C down, they have felt on the clappers, so make a really satisfying 'dong' sound They're not my choice of bells to play though as they weigh a fair amount, and their parts tend to consist mainly of parts of chords rather than the tune.

Is it a viable option to have people sharing the parts? I mean, usually one person has two handbells...so could two people do that part, with one handbell each.
It could be up to the people, of course, whether they wanted to take turns or share...I can only think that some of us might feel better with only one bell to worry about (if I can come, and I have two bells, I am going to be the person who consistently dongs the wrong one...)

Yes, the group I'm in has a couple of people sharing the one part. In fact, when I started, I was given just one bell until they saw how I got on. You have to stand quite close to the other person though, as you share music.

A word of caution - if you're given a left hand bell, use your left hand! In our group, the notes are red for right hand and blue for left hand. I started on a blue bell, but with my right hand - this is a recipe for complete chaos when you then try two bells, as your brain has been trained to think blue=right hand, and you have to un-train it!

To be honest, I think it's actually easier with two bells, as you have more to do. When there's only one you tend to nod off and miss your next entry!

Lateral thinking!! I honestly hadn't thought of splitting the parts

Berkshiremum, you'd be confused with our music:RH is still red, but left is green and blue is used for a third bell if you have to juggle.

I think handbells sound very cool and would participate if I could!

I think there's a decent chance it'll be when you're on holiday from uni Nicki, as it will naturally have to wait 'til sarah123's finished her A levels.

Thinking of around late June/July.

We have a date!

Saturday 29th August 2009, at West Byfleet, Surrey.

Places will be limited, and applications will open towards the end of June.

I've been having a look through the non-christmassy stuff and there's not a lot.

I've found:
The bells of Saint Mary's
All Through the Night
Minuet in G (Bach)
Men of Harlech
Greensleeves
Helston Floral Dance
The Marseillaise
The Teddy Bears' Picnic
Somewhere over the Rainbow
When you wish upon a star

Most of these were arranged pre-computers, so are rather messy, hand-written and photocopied, so you can't read half the notes , so I'm going to need to do them properly.

I'm half way through deciphering the Teddy Bears' Picnic at the moment.

Does anyone have any other requests for music? It could be anything at all (although needs to be able to fit into 2 octaves).

That looks a goodly set of music Sarah . I think by the time you've taught us the rudiments of handbell ringing, around 10-12 pieces to call on would be great. I'll have a think about whether there's anything specific I'd like to have a go at.

In the meantime, all your efforts are much appreciated Sarah, well done!

the harry potter theme tune!

I was actually already considering doing that as it would sound lovely on handbells

Great minds obviously think alike



Honestly, the rudiments of handbells will take all of ten seconds (and even that is probably a bit of an over-estimate!) All there is to it is to dong at the right time.

...and there's I guess arranging us in the right order for each piece, assuming we want a change of bells from time to time.

I too think the Harry Potter main theme would work well on bells.

Hmm, I wonder which heap of clutter I put the Harry Potter music in...

oo, that was easier to find than I thought. Shame the fast arpeggioey bits are over too-big a range, so some rearranging or missing out is going to happen there. Otherwise, it looks good.

Actually, there's quite an art to donging the heavier (lower) bells at the right time, especially at greater speeds. The light top bells are easy, but people sometimes have trouble using their left hand. You need to learn to roll the bells to get a lovely piano sound, and how hard you can ring without spoiling the tone, so I think Sarah is being a bit dismissive here!

There are other things to learn about too, like thumb damping for staccato (you need to wear gloves for that so as not to mess the bells up; we buy white gloves from Boots) and there's also the shake. So I reckon at least 5 minutes for the rudiments!

Gloves?!? You obviously are much nicer to your bells than we are!

I think most of those are advanced techniques applicable to specific styles of ringing. I've not used most of them, and I've done a lot of handbell ringing in my time with different teams.

I have to admit liking the Teddy Bears Picnic, so glad to see that there.

Harry Potter sounds great too.

I bow to your greater knowledge! I've only been in one team for about 15 months, so assumed that what we did was pretty average. As to advanced techniques - I was expected to pick them up quite quickly, and they do only take about 5 minutes!

The only 'advanced technique' used in any of our music is a trill in the Teddy Bears' picnic, so you can have that part if you want it

Of course I don't want it! I'm not claiming to be at all advanced - I've probably played in about 15 sessions at most, because our leader (who's about 80) has had 2 or 3 ops this year so we haven't met very regularly. It's just that the lady who leads us says the way to play softly is to roll the bells, and that you should never ring too loudly if you want to make a nice sound.

I suppose it's a bit like a piano - anyone can get a note by just banging the key, but if you were actually aiming for a nice sound you might use a little more subtlety!

Don't you have dynamics or legato and staccato in your pieces then? And yes, our leader does look after her bells well. They each live in their own little linen bag with embroidered note name, and we have special foam cushions to rest them on, and never touch the metalwork at all without gloves. This is supposed to help preserve the nice tone.

Perhaps your set of bells is more like a school piano i.e. well used, whereas hers (she owns them, which I suppose is why she likes us to be careful) are looked after as a privately owned piano would be.

Our bells are about 100 years old (with a couple of newer additions to the set) and don't have their own sleeping bags: they get tucked into a big chest with padding for most of the year, then come out for christmas. Their labels were illegible until a couple of days ago when I replaced them all. I think they used to belong to a church bell-ringer who left them to the other bell-ringers in their will, or something along those lines.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by rolling them, but I expect that, with the exception of the big ones, it wouldn't work on our set (you really have to go for it to get the teeny ones to sound).

So, to answer your other question, we don't have dynamics, legato or staccato. But, given that most of our team can't read music at all, that's probably a good thing, as it takes long enough to learn things as it is.

I don't think I'll be doing dynamics or articulation. Ringing the bell in the correct place will be a massive achievement for me!

I'm sure you'll do really well, Barry! If you can sightread well on clarinet, you'll have no trouble with handbells - all you have to do is count and come in on the right beat.

It's surprising how easy it is to pick up if you've had a good musical training. You can always tell which ringers play another instrument, because they know what they're doing from the start of a new piece.

Thanks for all the info, Sarah. I'm really looking forward to your handbells day next August, and to "meeting" your bells; how lovely to have such an old set to play on.

Hello

I will be visiting the venue in the next couple of weeks or so, and I'm looking at a mid-May launch for this event. Places will be limited, so when the event is launched, it's worth getting your forms in sooner rather than later.

I'll start a brand new thread when the event webpage is launched.

Ooo, exciting

Count me in please, sounds fun.

Here's an updated list of people who have shown an interest, given the old one has disappeared somewhere a few pages back now...

sarah123
barry clari
andante in c
Teigr
Daisy Chain
Katyjay
hello_cello
Panthera
Val Alto
BerkshireMum
smd
CJB
nicki flute?
altoclef3

Without trying to sound like a big idiot.... What are handbells?

Small bells, each with a handle of sorts (ours have a leather loop), tuned so that you can play things. Ours go from middle C up the C major scale to top G, i.e. 14 bells, but you can get others to play the "black notes".

In our group usually 7 players have 2 adjacent bells each (I have the top D and E bells) and you play from music. Sometimes there's just a melody line, but more often there are at least 2 parts going, with more bells on the chords.

These are handbells

(Sorry about the rubbish picture! I only had my phone at the time.)

Oooh, there are a lot in your set! What range do they cover?

Have you ever tried doing two in one hand? I've been shown how to do it (you thread one handle through the loop of the other, so that the clappers are at right angles), but it's really hard remembering which way to ring them - each bell will sound only if you shake so that its clapper hits, and because they're at right angles you move your wrist in two different ways.

Ive never seen a black and cream one, you must show us that one!

They go from G below middle C to G two octaves above that and all the chromatic notes in between.

I've had a try at playing two in one hand, but have generally found it easier to pick them up and put them down again on the odd occasion when I've had a part with 3 bells. You could show me how to do it properly though



I wondered if you'd notice that special bell. I'll bring it with me if you really want to meet it.

Handbell update :

I'm viewing, and paying for the hall on May 22nd. The launch of the handbell day webpages/form will occur sometime soon after that, and it'll be on a new thread.

Thanks for explaining

Looks fuin, but hard

Sarah123 is a very good handbell player, who will ensure everyone will have a good time : so don't worry

Stop it! I'm not a 'proper' handbell player and I'm sure several of the other people who might be coming are a lot better than I am at handbell playing.

you do yourself down sarah123

Have you got an idea of what we'll be playing yet?

****Barry is exagerating!!! Please don't come under the expectation that I am a good handbell player!!!****

Do come though!!

I haven't really thought much more about what we're going to play. There's a list of pieces I found somewhere back in the thread, but other than that, I'll try arranging a couple of things after exams, probably starting with the Harry Potter theme.

I've just sent the webpages off to katyjay, to add to the forumconcert website. When they go live, I'll start a new thread, get this thread locked, and applications can begin to come in!