We have one more eight-handbell hymn arrangement to share before we start bringing our new Christmas selections out!
Sep 10
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Bass handbell ensemble music hasn’t been doing a lot of growth since Low Ding Zone decided to head off into the sunset. Come to think of it, LDZ might have been the only source of music of that sort for most of its existence.
Anyway, one piece that LDZ might have played, but certainly never managed to record, is Go Tell It on the Mountain. Fortunately, the Seattle Bass Handbell Ensemble made a great video of it on 2009!
Sep 04
Twelve-Bell Christmas Music is Here!
We’ve been holding onto five new twelve-bell Christmas arrangements, and the time has come to let you have a look at them. You’ll find them to be loads of fun, and there’s plenty of time to prepare them for the holidays!
Here are our new pieces – we hope you enjoy playing them!
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella
- Ding Dong, Merrily on High
- It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
- We Three Kings
We also thank J.C. for helping us with recording the videos!
Aug 28
Welcome to the New Season!
If you’re a church musician, August/September is about the time to start the new season (should I delay the first rehearsal until after Labor Day*? what can we have ready for the first Sunday we’re scheduled? And so on, and so forth).
If you’re in a minor squeeze because that first service with music is starting to look a bit tenuous, we have good news for you. We’ve just released our third “Surprisingly Easy”™ Eight-Bell Hymn Collection. We’re sure you’ll like it – the seven hymns that comprise it are long-time favorites in many churches:
Praise to the Lord
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (hymn tune: CORONATION)
At the Cross
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Jesus Shall Reign
He Keeps Me Singing
All you have to do is get the music, and then find two, three, or four handbell players. As they say in England, “easy peasy”.
Have fun, and welcome to a new music season!
*For those of you who aren’t familiar with US holidays, Labor Day is the first Monday in September.
Aug 16
Praise Him! Praise Him!
We’re in Harbor Springs, Michigan for a few days. It turns out that we’ve arrived on the hottest weekend of the whole year – it’s about 90º F. outside, so we’re thankful for air conditioning! We have a day to kick back before rehearsals start tomorrow, and plan to have a nice time, probably in the hotel. 🙂
Meanwhile, wherever you are, and whatever temperature it is in your neighborhood, we have a new eight-bell arrangement to share with you. Fanny Crosby is one of the great names in American church music, and we’ve added our new “standard” version of her hymn “Praise Him! Praise Him!” to the Surprisingly Easy™ one we published awhile ago.
Aug 10
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Today, we’re releasing our new eight-handbell arrangement of Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It’s a great piece with which to start the new season, especially if you’d like to give your full-size bell choir a bit of additional time to prepare their first piece for service.
Do take a look, and pick up the score for your own ministry!
Aug 04
Wrong Foot Forward
We’ve just released our arrangement of “Wrong Foot Forward”, a new generation Irish jig by Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen of the band Flook. It’s on their album “Haven” – and it’s a lot of fun!
You might ask yourself why Brian and Sarah chose this title. Well… there are two kinds of Irish jigs. The “regular” ones, usually danced by the men, have two triple beats (six eighth notes) per bar. “Slip jigs”, usually danced by the women, have three triple beats (nine eighth notes) per bar. But…”Wrong Foot Forward” has seven eighth notes per bar – so you can imagine what it will do to the unprepared dancer!
We truly enjoyed hearing Sarah’s rendition of “Wrong Foot Forward”, on which she adeptly plays five minutes of continuous music on a flute that she feeds with ultraquick “snap breaths”. Here’s our version, without having to worry quite as much about breathing!
Jul 19
And Here’s Some New Twelve-Bell Music!
We’ve just added seven new twelve-handbell arrangements to our catalog! You can play these as anything between a four-in-hand trio to a sextet of ringers with two bells each. And they’re fun, because they’re a bit challenging (well, okay, some of them are just plain challenging!) – but if you practice, you’ll find they have a wonderful sound, and will work well in your concerts of worship services. Do take a look – you’ll find the demonstration videos on the pages for the pieces!
- Farandole: We hinted at having an arrangement of Georges Bizet’s famous piece in the previous post. Our twelve-bell score gives each player quite a bit to do, and will be an exciting piece to share with your friends.
- Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee: This part of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is one of the reasons that it’s been a world favorite for over a century.
- Morning Has Broken: Cat Stevens helped make this song famous a relatively small number of years ago, but it actually has been around for much longer than that.
- My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean: You probably have sung this from time to time at campfires, or maybe when you’ve been on the water someplace.
- O Worship the King: Twelve-bell hymns are great for any service! This arrangement would be perfect as a prelude or as gathering music.
- Shenandoah: This American folk song recalls gentle rivers, gorgeous scenery, and idyllic times.
- There is a Fountain: The Christian faith is filled with vivid imagery. This hymn recalls the magnitude of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
Jul 14
Summer Doldrums?
It’s summer, and most of us are in off-season mode. That, of course, is because we traditionally synchronize our handbell (or choir) year to when folks are in town, so that means mid-August to mid-June. When we think of playing bells during the summer, we call around to see who’s available, and see whether we can find music that works.
Good news! If you have only two or three (or four, five, or six) friends who can get together to play in church or for a picnic, we have plenty of music for you to try. Our videos of our eight-bell music are presented as four-in-hand duets, but our friends have played them as trios and quartets as well. We’d like to mention “Ring 4 Glory” of Pacific Grove, California, who have played some of our eight-bell scores.
Our more recently-released twelve-bell scores are loads of fun, too. Who would have thought that Georges Bizet’s famous Farandole could be condensed into just a dozen notes? And we’re planning to add some more to what we have, so drop by now and then to check!
Have a wonderful summer!
Jun 25
Yay! A new collection!
We’ve been excited that our handbell musician friends have liked our “Surprisingly Easy”™ music, especially the collections. We’ve heard lots of stories of how our arrangements have found a home with duets, trios, and quartets. We’ve also seen some really nice videos too!
The news this week is that we’ve added a second “Surprisingly Easy”™ eight-bell hymn collection. Most of them are “golden oldies” because they’ve been in our hymnals for centuries (literally!). But… they’re still great hymns with great lyrics, and we still worship with them today – that’s a testament to how great they are!
- Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
- Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
- All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (CORONATION)
- At the Cross
- Great is Thy Faithfulness
- Jesus Shall Reign
- He Keeps Me Singing
Do take a look – we think you’ll love playing these new arrangements!