Living Water - Dissertations - Bass Ringer's Notebook - Stopped Sounds

Stopped Sounds

Stopped sounds are the bell techniques that damp the sound of a bell immediately after the clapper strikes the casting. For the sake of argument, I've included related techniques, such as a martellato-lift, which follow a stopped sound with a sustained sound created by lifting the bell.

Because stopped sounds involve contact with or impacts to the vibrating part of the instrument, they're poor choices for chimes. The tines are too fragile to take much in terms of hitting object, even pads, and people have cracked their chimes by doing this (remember, the only remedy for a cracked chime is to buy a new one). Contact with the chimes usually is hard to control as it kills the sound too quickly. There is, however, one stopped sound you can make with a chime which you can't make with a bell (see below).

The recommended swing distance for a stopped sound is a couple of inches. At the 2000 Area XII bell conference, one of the guys in my bass bell class said his director called that distance "one taco". It's an excellent metric except, perhaps, when you're really hungry and have a craving for some Mexican food! Anyway, a great strike distance than "one taco" means that you're hitting the waist in a very specific location with a very focused force - and people have broken castings, particularly on some very large, expensive bells, by overenthusiastic malleting. As with chimes, the only fix for a cracked bell is to buy a new one - and they cost ten times as much as chimes!

I've broken the stopped sounds into those which are done only with the hands (and pad),. and those which are mallet-assisted.

Hands-Only Stopped Sounds:

• (Thumb Damp) / (Hand Damp): The thumb damp is executed by ringing the bell with your thumb on the side of the casting. This creates a very short pitched sound which commonly is used in staccato passages. For larger bells, it usually is necessary to put more fingers or even a hand on the side of the bell, and for some places where you have two (small) bells in the same hand, you'll find yourself holding the casting between two fingers to do this.

• (Ring Touch): Ring the bell normally, except close to the body, and pull it back immediately to a shoulder damp. Bass bells will usually require you to roll the waist of the bell down your shoulder a bit to damp the sound; alternately, you can use your other hand (if it's free) to damp the far side of the bell.

• (Table Land Damp): Ring the bell, and when it's time to damp it, turn it mouth down and place it on the pad. This is primarily a show device because it doesn't make that much of a difference in the sound of the bell. And yes, I admit that it really isn't a true stopped sound.

• (Pluck) (also Pluck) (Pluck-Lift) (also Pluck-Lift): With the bell resting on the table, grasp the clapper with your fingers and thumb (thumb on top), and send the clapper downward. For the pluck, that's all you have to do; for the pluck lift, you must also lift the bell off the table in a normal circle just after the clapper strikes - it's a sforzando-style effect. For large bells, the "one taco" rule is in effect so that you can maintain better control of just when the clapper hits - remember, more speed doesn't significantly affect volume, so lighten up! In addition, it's an element of good technique to keep your thumb on the clapper as long as possible without impeding the sound - then you'll know when the clapper is going to hit with more precision.

• (Martellato) (Martellato-Lift) (Hand-Martellato): Lift the bell, and punch it (gently!) into the pad so that the clapper strikes the casting while the bell is on the table. You may need to rock the handle upward a bit to prevent double-striking, and the "one-taco" rule applies. A hand-mart is done by wrapping a hand around the casting rather than holding the handle. A mart-lift is similar to a pluck-lift, except for the initial technique used. Warning: Current thinking is that martellato is detrimental to bells below G3 because of the extra stress it puts on a large casting! Most composers are now indicating that mallets are to be used instead.
  
  Also: if you're playing a martellato with a bell which is on the large side, you might want to try wrapping your thumb and index finger around the top edge of the disk for a bit more control.

• (Sforzando-piano): This is the "chimes only" one. It's rather experimental, but with some exploration, it should be usable. Put one or two fingers on the side of one tine, play the chime, and just as the clapper strikes, take your fingers off the tine. This produces a strong, quick sound first, and if you've done it correctly, the chime continues to sound at a lower volume.

Mallet-Assisted Stopped Sounds:

The perceived volume of malleted sounds is three to four times greater than ringing a comparable bell. This isn't because the sound actually is louder; it's because the volume spike which occurs is easily perceived by our ears (that's why you eventually get used to driving next to a semi rig after a bit, but still hear the super-bass pulsing in the SUV on the other side). It's the same principle as that which makes staccato or marcato notes more audible with other instruments. That means you don't have to whack away at your bells to make your malleting heard; in fact, it makes a lot of sense to go lightly.

You should be holding the mallet handle in a "shake hands" position. Don't put a thumb or an index finger on top of the shank because it robs you of flexibility and touch, and therefore precision and quality as well.

A time-tested method for malleting is, if possible, to rest the mallet head on the bell to be played before striking it. Then all you have to do is lift and strike, and you don't really need to look because you already know where the bell it. Of course, this doesn't apply in active passages where you don't have time to rest the mallets.

The best place to strike the casting with a mallet is at the same distance the clapper does. That way you don't place any strange stresses on your bells, and they'll last longer.

• (Mallet) (Mallet-lift): With the bell resting on the table, strike the casting approximately where the clapper hits on the backring. Be gentle - remember, malleted sounds appear to be extra-loud. A mallet-lift is similar to the other stopped-lift techniques.