Thank you!

Wow, it's busy in here!

I feel like I should be doing something towards this, Barry seems to be doing all the hard work at the moment.

It's only a case of collecting forms, getting a name list together, and sending it in due course to you Sarah.

Very encouraged with how busy it is in here, and with the numbers coming.

I'll get my quill and ink out to fill it in

Get PayPal

I'm planning to for the future

I think I've sent confirmations of receipt to everyone who's sent me forms : let me know if I haven't.

Next PO Box collection will be next Friday (19th).

Ooo, why didn't I see this before!

*goes to find cheque book and pen, before slightly taming my hair for a trip to the post box (20 yards from my front door!)*

Look forward to seeing you there p-c-f!

Quick reminder of the above. I'll send acknowledgements out soon after.

And you loved every minute of it.

Can we tempt you with a spot of bellringing Bev?

Having done the latest collection of forms (thank you DaisyChain and pianocelloflute ), I'd say we now have about 8 or 9 spaces left. Do think about reserving your place soon, if you want to come along, before all the places go...

Doing another PO Box collection tomorrow. Again, I'll acknowledge receipt of the forms/payment soon after.

Thanks altoclef3 : I'll email you an acknowledgement very soon

You woke me up again! I must remember to turn my phone of next Wednesday night!

I'd do it on Thursday night if I were you - collections will be most Fridays!

Two days of the holidays and I've lost track of days already.

Barry - cheque will be on its way tomorrow, promise! I know I'm a nightmare

No worries Solari

Close family member in and out of hospital so it's sort of slipped down on the "to do" list... I actually wrote the cheque out as soon as I got in today, I just need to post it in the morning!

Oops, sorry Barry, this has just reminded me I still have to send you money for the prom trip! I'll do it in the next couple of days, I promise.

No problem at all Sarah

Cheque finally posted! Thanks

Cool : I'll pick it up in the week

I just hope I don't end up making everyone's ears bleed with poor ringing

We'll risk it! There really isn't much you can do wrong with the ringing - it's more a question of coming in at the right time.

Hehe, I take it there's a knack to moving your wrist a few moments before the note should be sounded as it's not an instant thing.

I shall resist making quasimodo jokes

Not really, it's a bit like playing the piano I suppose in that respect.

Next PO Box collection will be Monday 6th July

Do you have to go all the way down to the depot? That's a bit out of the way if so...

I quite frequently have to pass the depot on my wanderings, that's the next time I'm passing by...

Hairy Fluff.

Hopefully you should have my cheque then You should seriously think of getting a paypal account though and accepting payments as "gifts" to avoid charges. I send money to people this way without any problems

With the amount I'm now doing for the forum, I'm seriously contemplating paypal now, yes

Next PO Box collection will be Friday.

Thanks for your payment Solari

Botheration! I forgot to give you my cheque AGAIN! Maybe I had something else on my mind on Saturday. I will have to post it.

I have a small suspicion that you did andante! Don't know if you're seeing katyjay before Saturday, you could give her the cheque, if you remember

Er, yes, will be seeing her tomorrow. Rather an important date at Trinity College.

Yes, that may be a day you'll easily and quite understandably forget too! Don't worry if you do forget, just stick it in the post if you do.

Baaaarrryyy.... am I right in thinking that we have 12 people at the moment?

I'm going to start trying to arrange Harry Potter and don't want to do it for too many people. Although, given we only have 25 bells, I guess the limit would be 13 parts anyway and that would be for something horribly chromatic. Anyway, if you could let me know at some point...

Just checking... noone who's coming is red/green colour-blind are they? as all the existing music is marked up in green and red. If this is a problem, I can re-do a part of the new stuff I'm arranging in different colours but I don't really have time to go through putting the existing stuff into sibelius to change it so you'll have to have your wits about you and be on the look out for your notes rather than just keeping an eye on the coloured ones coming up.

Sorry if that's going to cause anyone problems, I probably should have mentioned it sooner.

I'm not colour blind!

Good, you'll just have to try and decipher my handwritten music then as sibelius is being unhelpful and I've decided to ditch it.

The Hedwig's Theme Harry Potter piece is going to use 24 out of the 25 bells, so has 12 parts, making it 4 parts bigger than anything we've ever played on handbells before. 7 parts down...5 to go!

Ooh, that sounds fun! I hope we aren't getting too ambitious, given that a lot of people have never played handbells before. It'll be good to have something to get our teeth into, anyway.

It sounds a lot of work for you, Sarah. Are you going on holiday soon and trying to get organised before you go?

Sarah, can you empty your PM box, please?

Failing that, add me to MSN (as per profile) as I have a few ideas

One of the results of having lots of parts in a piece seems (except from a couple of the parts) that each part has much fewer notes, so there isn't going to be the mad ringing of alternate bells throughout the piece like I often end up with, playing A and B. I've nearly finished Harry Potter now, so did you have any other ideas for things that you might like to play?

It's really not that much work, honest! It will have taken me just over a day to do this one and that would have been a lot less if I'd ditched sibelius from the beginning and started out with a pencil and manuscript paper rather than putting it all into the computer, fiddling around for about an hour to work out how to colour in notes, fiddling for a couple more hours rearranging and printing out the first 4 parts and then having the program crash on me and having to start again.

Given I've got an entire summer and no real plans (the handbells/prom weekend and next week's music lessons are literally the only things I know are happening lol) I don't really mind spending a few days arranging and colouring-in music. I think we are probably going away in the first half of August but I expect the decision about where and when will probably be made around about two days before we leave, as usual.



Well, if you're going to insist on filling it up...

Try again now.

Would need to check my lists (still in the North West at the moment), but I believe it's 12, yes.



I have no problem with colours Sarah.

Harry Potter's finished, as is Scarborough Fair, which took a grand total of about 3 hours while watching tv lol.

Any other requests?

EDIT:


Does anyone fancy playing the theme from American Beauty? It should work really well on bells.

OK, I've just horrifed my son by admitting I'd never heard this before!

On first hearing, it seems to have a very limited range in the piano part, and the sustained orchestral notes couldn't be done properly on bells. If you fancy trying to arrange it, though, I'm happy to listen to it played by those who know it!

Our handbell group used to do some well-known classical pieces - things like the Ode to Joy theme from Beethoven's 9th and Handel's Water Music. Do you have any music already, or will you have to arrange it all? I could ask our handbell leader whether she would loan us hers - given that we aren't meeting at present she might agree. We only have bells from middle C to top G though, and no sharps, so everything is in C major!

I have a piano version of the American Beauty piece which I'd work it out from, so either that has the orchestra notes in or it doesn't (I'm not sure really), but it still works.

We have quite a bit of music already. I posted a list of it somewhere, which I go and look for then copy it into here but if you want to bring music, the more the better really as we have a whole day to fill.

I've just been having a look through the 'All the pieces you never ever wanted to play' books for ideas and I think Yesterday and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy would work pretty well.

EDIT:
Here's the non-christmassy music we already have:
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 (only the first half though)
Somewhere over the Rainbow
When you wish upon a star

There.
That was useful.
Now, vote for me!