Worship Arts July August September 2022

Multi-generational choirs M any of us have had children’s chime choirs, youth chime or handbell choirs, and adult handbell choirs, but one of my favorite things is having a multi-generational handbell or chime group – grand parents, parents, children, or just anyone wanting a lower-pressure experience in ringing. We usually start with sing-to-ring charts of fa miliar hymns which are color coded for quick success as described above. Later, I have transitioned them into charted music where we read just the beats of the measures, 1-2-3-4 | 2-2-3-4 | 3-2-3-4, etc. I don’t use color for this, just a circle around the beats played with left hand and a square around the beats played with right hand. The example (above left) is a bit more advanced but shows the chart of a passage with beats as well as the music marked with the circles and squares for D5 and E5. There are numerous pieces published with processional intro ductions. An exciting way to begin worship is to have ringers enter playing these patterns which layer to make an interesting and atten tion-grabbing call to worship. You could also play the whole piece, but extracting the processional is a quick way to teach by rote and the kids in the church are not afraid to just play. Some that we have used with great success are “Procession and Bell Chime” and “Processional and Joyful Dance,” both by Margaret Tucker and published by Choristers Guild. NOTE 1 Howard Vanderwell, ed., The Church of All Ages: Generations Worshiping Together (Hern don, VA: The Alban Institute, 2008), 11. Reprinted from WorshipArts May-June 2018 Fellowship member SHAWN GINGRICH , seen on page 10, is Director of Music Ministry at First United Methodist Church, Hershey, PA, and is a past national president of The Fellowship.

colored stickers on the chimes, the kids knew which chord to ring on which words. Green was used for the F chord (F-A-C), red was used for the C chord (C-E-G) and purple was used for the Bb chord (Bb-D-F). The kids who had C and F had two chords to ring! This is easy to do without help but if you doubt yourself there is a great, inexpensive resource to help with this kind of sing-and-ring approach – Chimeworks ® found online at chimeworks.com. There are many possibilities with this sing-and-ring approach using only the words and color coding. A yearly tradition for our church is the entrance of children ring ing bells (randomly) during the singing of a carol for the Hanging of the Greens service. Kids from infancy through teens get a bell and enjoy this participation in worship. It does not need rehearsal, only requiring setting the right bells out ahead of time, usually the scale in the key of the carol, and some elbow grease afterwards to remove the fingerprints.

We also make use of our racked Cymbells ® at Christmas and Easter, with older teens playing peals and scales during the singing of “Joy to the World” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” If you don’t have the luxury of the Cymbells ® you can interlock the handles and hang a tree of bells to peal. I transpose “Joy to the World” down to C since that fits bell sets better. The pat tern of DO-do-la-fa-re-ti-sol-mi (where DO is low C and do is high C) interspersed with descending diatonic scales (DO-do-ti-la-sol fa-mi-re-DO) is very effective. If you have time and the personnel, try training four ringers to coor dinate these patterns, each having two bells ringing in the traditional way. Using bell trees or racked bells many times throughout the year for such things as obbligatos and ostinatos creatively enhances worship. This technique is as sisted greatly by many publica tions available. The two volumes of Hal Hopson’s The Creative Use of Handbells in Worship published by Hope are excellent.

more likely to remain so later in life.

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