After concerts, I like to sit and watch the performances to see the audience's perspective. Of course, that means that I have to remember to get it recorded somehow. For our fall concerts, I was able to set my phone in the sound booth and our sound technician started and stopped the recording. This allowed me to take the recording into the next rehearsal.

Here is what our post-performance rehearsal looks like: First, we celebrate with donuts. (This is very important to them!) Then we go around the room and each ringer shares their favorite part of the performance. Then we watch the performance song by song. After each song, we discuss observations regarding musicality, shining moments, mistakes, and anything else they think of. Then we “grade” the performance of the song. This process helps them to see where they can improve, but it also allows them to celebrate their successes throughout the concert. The ringers are brutally honest about their own individual mistakes, but when they can hear and see the performance as if they were an audience member, they feel like their mistakes weren’t as glaring as they felt in the performance. 

As we continue preparations for Christmas, I can’t help but be excited about all of the joyful bells that will ring between now and the new year. I am looking forward to our own concerts and church services, as well as having the opportunity to see other ensembles play across the country thanks to technology and livestreaming. Even if you can’t make it to live concerts, make sure you look for concerts that will be livestreamed! While they may not be as exciting as seeing and hearing the handbells in person, it is still fantastic to watch on the screen. 

As always, if you have any questions, your board is here for you. Please reach out to any of us.

Ringing opportunities for Mixed Nuts (massed),

Almonds & Pistachios (divisional ringing)

Classes and repertoire TBA

Registration opens on January 24, 2024

Registration cost: $175/person; $150/person for groups of 8 or more

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT - register by April 24, 2024 and receive a $25/person discount.

Friday and Saturday | September 27/28, 2024

Concordia University, Irvine

Tim Waugh, Clinician

The massed ringing began with a processional leading the ringers into the room accompanied by trumpets and drum which led into the opening song, Festival Intrada. The massed choirs then rang a very touching song, Air and Hornpipe, on chimes with Julie Hunziker playing along with her bell tree. Of course we had to involve the audience with two sing along songs, Siyahamba, and Willie Nelson’s song, On the Road Again. It truly was a wonderful day of making music with our friends!  

The Redding Handbell Festival for October 19, 2024 features Matthew Compton as our guest director. You won’t want to miss it so mark your calendars early. Speaking of calendars, be sure to check the Area 12 calendar for upcoming holiday ringing events in Northern California.

Submitted by 

Nancy Schmitt

A full-service handbell store

with music and accessories:

gloves • gifts

maintenance items

mallets • binders

bell tree items

Malmark products

visit us at

www.heitzhandbells.com

612-208-1741

877-426-3235



heitzhandbells@yahoo.com

7209 Morgan Ave S Richfield, MN 55423

ADVERTISEMENT 6/23

The 12th Night Handbell Festival is endorsed by Handbell Musicians of America, dedicated to uniting people through the musical art of handbell and handchime ringing. www.handbellmusicians.org

Registration is now open for two incredible events that will bring together many handbell ensembles to perform together under one roof. Concordia's Handbell Invitational is on Saturday, March 16, 2024. High school ensembles, church ensembles, and community ensembles are invited to attend this special event. Your ringers' skills will be honed under the direction of clinicians Alex Guebert, Erik Der and guest adjudicators, your ensemble will perform during a public concert, and you'll join together in beautiful harmony with a mass ring. 

Concordia Handbell Invitational | Saturday, March 16 2024: Register Here

(Or you can contact me directly: 619-995-0256)

And now... something for the kids! 

Concordia's Young Ringers Festival is on Saturday, March 9, 2024. This event is specially designed for ringers 8th grade and younger! Adjudication/workshop, mass ring, afternoon concert and more await your registration! 

Concordia Young Ringers Festival| Saturday, March 9 2024: Register Here

This year, because we had several experienced orchestral and choral musicians in addition to experienced bell musicians, we decided to add something every group needs to work on – ensemble and phrasing. Since it can be tough to hear everyone in a line of bells, we decided to come up with a “game” to help work on phrasing.

Here’s an example of the game:

6 people were assigned to a group that had the sentence “Woman: without her, man is nothing.” Each person in the group was handed a slip of paper with the sentence on it and was assigned to say one of the words in the sentence. Then, as a group, they practiced saying their individual words in sentence order until the group felt like they could speak the whole sentence with the proper punctuation. 

In the meantime, other groups were working on their sentences such as:

• “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”
• “I find inspiration in cooking, my family, and my dog.”
• “I find inspiration in cooking my family and my dog.”

Each group recited to all the attendees their individual word sentence and compared the meanings. There was lots of discussion about how inflection, timbre, facial expression, posture, volume, and timing affected the meaning. Lots of light bulbs went on after that about how important it is to use these tools with instrumental music (including bells) to convey meaning through phrasing.  

After the game, we moved on to reading through some music and it was amazing how musical it was!