Handbells

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Near the end of day, strength and stamina start to wear thin. It's unfortunate that we don't find out about the value of pacing ourselves until it's too late, but we certainly have a great time exhausting ourselves. There also is a mental fatigue which goes with all the playing. I find that if I've been staring at music all day, there's a tendency for my eyes to start dancing. This makes all the chords into tone clusters, which are easier to play (i.e. you can't miss...) but which most composers don't use in massive profusion. Oh well... half of music is getting the right notes - and the rest is jazz.

Skin also sometimes wears thin. Handling the bells can create hot spots and even blisters, so adhesive tape is a big blessing, especially if you think ahead. There even is a minor science to taping your hands properly (for instance, it's a good idea to allow enough looseness for the blood to circulate). And so some of us take advantage of others' experience (and tape, as Jackie is doing here by asking Nario to give her some help).

Back to the mental fatigue aspect. It's hard to go full bore all day doing something you usually do for only one or two hours a week, and even more so when it perhaps is at a more intense level than you're used to maintaining. It's bad news when the room begins making little circles before your eyes (hey, we're in California... it must an earthquake). But much to their credit, everyone stuck with the effort at hand and made it through the concert wonderfully. Well, almost... but I will not take the time to relate The Incident of the Missing F#4 here...

And here are the 1997 Brass Angels (back row: Janelle, Gavin, Chris, Matt; front row: Jackie, Allyson, Sarah, and Shawn). It's events like this which bring us special opportunities to hang out, have fun, share common interests, and, most of all, glorify God by making music together.