Need Glasses

[animal]

I now resemble that comic. I have worn glasses since 4th grade. It was for distance. Last year the Ophthalmologist said it is time for me to get bi-focal or progressive lenses. I opted for the progressive lenses.
I still take the glasses off at time to read small print because I cannot get the page placed right with my head place a certain way so I can see out of the right exact location of the glasses.
I play handbells (C and D 4…The C and D below middle C) and it can be fun finding the right height to place the music book when all you got is a table to place the book on.

[altoclarinets]

^Handbells are fun enough when you can see fine. Especially when you are the only person in your handbell choir below age 50.
I have worn glasses for my whole life- no lie- and its getting to where I have to use reading glasses as well, but the ones I have make my eyes hurt if I look anwhere but the text so I don't use them much. But I will be in bad shape by the time I'm of retiring age.

[animal]

Handbells are fun! They are a great way to get your frustrations out by playing loud, but please, do not clanging the bell. The choir director (my wife) gets mad at me for doing that. I just tell her that bass bells have two volumes, loud and louder, just like drums I played in marching band (of course there, you can get away with it).

I figure you are like I am right now, playing bells every weekend in December PLUS those little extra concerts/church meetings that happen to pop up this time of year.

The only bad part about all this is that this is the busy time of year for me at my “real” job (I teach people how to do road and building site design using engineering software). With the “slow season” for construction (December and January), anyone who wants training wants it NOW. So that means trips to places like Syracuse, NY and St. Paul, MN (I know, I get to go to all the exotic places. In August it is normally Arizona or Louisiana) and the choir gets a little mad if I am not around. I believe the only reason my wife puts up with me in bell choir is that I set the tables up, move the bell cases and after practice I take them all down.

I guess once a percussionist always a percussionist, you got to put way all your play toys ;-)

[altoclarinets]

^Actually no, we generally only play once a month. Last year we were randomly called upon to play at the men's sunday school valentine's banquet, but that's about it. I ring F6, F#6, G6, Eb, E, F, F# and G 7. You?

[animal]

C4, C#4, D4, D#4 and at times G3, E4, F4 and F#4. Our choir has a 3 plus octave set of Schulmerich bells and a 3 octave set of Malmark hand chimes. We have 9 in the choir.

This morning we did “In the Bleak Mid-Winter” this Wednesday night we are going to do “Carol of the Bells” I get to play the E3 and F3 on that one besides the C. The organist says I am playing the pedal notes so I can be almost as loud as I want to be.

We get a break after January 4th. We will not have to play again until the 4th Sunday in February but Wednesday night practice begins again January 7th.

Talking about glasses, don't you just like it when you’re in the house (or store or car) and then step out on a cold day and the glasses fog up. I am naturally in a fog as is, so I do not need any help. ;-)

[altoclarinets]

Oh yes. Wonderful experience, that. We are technically *supposed* to ring 4 octaves- we have a 5 octave set of Schulmerich bells (with extras somewhere that we rarely if ever use) and a 3 octave set of Malmark chimes, with 10 or 11- we may be having one more join soon. What we actually ring varies from treble-only parts played to accompany the choir to 5 octave settings where our low bass player, Ab6-D7 ringer and I are all more than a little busy. Of all the pieces we've ever played I think my favorite may have been an "11-tet" with the organist of Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.

[animal]

Sorry about the long delay in responding, AltoClarinets

My wife and I are members of the American Guild of English Handbell Rings with our church choir. Once a year (around late February) the area chapter of AGEHR here has a “festival”. Anywhere from 11 to 20 full handbell choirs get together for a Friday night and a Saturday morning/afternoon of massed ringing and we end it with a concrete that lasts about one hour. This takes place in a civic center hall because there is no church around that could handle that many choirs and an audience of approximately 200 to 300 people (Besides all the other “church political” things.)

For some of the pieces, we will have a small orchestra and/or an organ to accompany us.
Any way, we did “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken” one year with organ and orchestra. If I remember correctly the orchestra was 2 trumpets, a trombone, tube, timpani (4 drums), flute, two violins, one cello and a viola. On the Saturday morning rehearsal when the organ and orchestra played with us for the first time, talk about shivers down your spine…

The last time I had a musical experience like that was back in High School. The marching band went to a show where there were five other bands (It was not a competition). We did two pieces with the massed band (about 700 musicians all told) all on the same field. I do not remember the title of this one piece we did but it was a British march. The melody was in the trumpets and would shift from one band to the other. The HS band I was in though it was a strange set up, when we practiced this because our trumpets where split (one group in front and the other in the rear) for this “concert formation”. What the melody ended up doing was go in a circle around the field, starting in the middle (front 50 yard line) then moving to the right, around through the end zone then along the back from right to left and back around. That was neat sounding even from the field.

[altoclarinets]

*jealousy*
I wonder how much it costs to join the guild... that would be molto fun...

[animal]

Hay Altoclarinets;

Here is the Guild's web site www.agehr.org/ I think a Student member is $35 /year.

[Tales From Band Camp]

Hey, handbell player here too! I play G5 through C6 (I think - I always forget the numbers since I read handbell music like I'm playing piano). Sometimes I also play in trios & quartets.

I'll post my handbell comic here pretty soon.

[animal]

You got a lot of bells to cover especial since that section seems to have the melody or at least all the sweet 16th note runs, in most bell pieces. I would guess you are ringing “four in paw” (I could not help it ;-)

For those who do not ring, that is “four in hand” which is two bells in each hand, one bell is rung “normal” and the other is rung like you are knocking on a door. ALSO>> C5 is middle C, C6 is the next C up. The B below C6 is B5.)

You must have some fun playing the accidentals if you playing 4-in-paw. My wife plays up at your end of the table. She plays the B5 C6 and B6 C7 positions. She is playing octives but 4 in a row. You must be one busy and very fast player.

For us "bottom feeders" (Bass Bells), there are times you play a whole octave of bells by yourself, but then, the bass is playing quarter, half and whole notes to the upper bells quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes.

Besides being entertaining, TFBC is also educational!

But don’t tell them that!

[Tales From Band Camp]

The joke in our handbell choir is that I'm given more and more bells to shut me up. ;D Yes, I play four in hand (plus chimes when it calls for it), and I like to "choreograph" when we have a lot of accidentals. ;D

[altoclarinets]

I may play a bunch, but the most athletic member of our choir is the one who sits right next to me. She rings Ab 6 through D7 (that is 7 bells!!!) as well as their respective chimes and the accidentals anyone else can't reach. And she manages it all with just two hands (She actually rings Shelley and not 4 in hand. She, I and the C6-Eb6 ringer are the only ones who actually are capable of doing so, but I only use it when I absolutely have to, most of the time the really high ones are just in octaves.)
Edit: Maybe we should retitle this thread & move it to General - call it the Handbell Thread.