Hand Bell Ringing Techniques

Plucking is a stopped sound technique used primarily in the bass clef c5 and lower.

Hand bell ringing techniques.

I suggest sitting in the middle of a bed because you ll drop the bells while learning. This technique may be used when a soft ring follows a loud ring with the same handbell s. The effect simulates a forte piano. This video shows t.

Ring the primary bell. Change ringing can also be performed on handbells where it becomes a contrast to the melodic music of handbell choirs. Throw the clapper down using the hand while the thumb guides the clapper against the strike point. Varying degrees of pressure will control the diminuendo.

This produces a crisp percussive sound. Practice with two small bells in ring and knock configuration in your right or dominant hand. Handbell techniques basic bell techniques including stopped sounds sustained sounds and altered sounds taught both as a half day workshop and as a 10 week series for adult beginners weaving managing multiple bells without using four in hand. Change ringing is a form of traditional music based on sequences permutations and patterns.

Demonstrate the ergonomic execution of each of the four in hand techniques for handbells parallel ring parallel push aka shelley ring and push british japanese style reverse stacked ring and push interlocked ring and push and interlocked british japanese style aka campanile including ringing together and separately damping articulations and changes to the primary and secondary instruments. It is most familiar to the public as the sound of church bells. To ring a handbell the ringer moves it in such a way that the clapper strikes the inside surface of the bell usually holding it against his or her shoulder bell upwards and then swinging the bell through an elliptical shape to cause the clapper to strike the casting. With bass bells lying on the foam pads grasp the clapper with the fingers keeping the thumb on top.

Handbells 101 the basic ringing stroke damping and understanding handbells as an instrument. Bell matters is a series of videos developed by blanche marie lewis handbell specialist to demonstrate a variety of handbell techniques.