How to Celebrate Christmas With Handbells

Bells add beauty and inspiration to the Christmas season.

Many people look forward to the sounds of handbells as a special Christmas treat. Handball fans of all ages and musical ability can find opportunities to enjoy the music of the bells and incorporate them into the annual celebration, but for music directors, celebrating Christmas with handbells requires some knowledge of these special instruments and the ability to plan a musical program.

Instructions

Handbell Fans

1. Look in local newspapers for details about public Christmas events. Holiday festivals sometimes feature heavenly sounding Christmas bell choirs. Contact local churches or Christian colleges to learn about upcoming events, like special church services or even entire concerts with handbells. The American Guild of English Handbell Ringers is another great resource for regional and local handbell concerts. If you can learn to read music, you can join a handbell choir.

2. Make music with your friends. With a set of colored handbells and color-coded music, even kids can play simple bell music. Local music stores often carry these sets and they are available online. For a party activity, you can even get a handbell party cracker set. Each cracker contains a colored handbell for each guest to take home, and the kit includes party sheet music.

3. Add handbell decorations to your Christmas tree, table centerpiece, or wreaths. Bells are such a popular Christmas shape that you are sure to find many of them in all price ranges.

4. Buy handbell items as gifts for others and for yourself. Music gift sites and Jeffers Handbell Supply carry jewelry, music boxes, decorations, posters, and other gifts with a bell theme.

Music Directors

1. Match up the number of handbells that your music group owns with ringers. Even if a church is fortunate enough to own handbells, not every congregation has enough ringers to form an entire choir. A 3-octave set is considered the recommended minimum size for a full choir. It is usually difficult to cover all of the notes without 10 ringers, but in simpler 3-octave music, nine ringers might be enough. A related problem is that a usually-full bell choir might be incomplete on Christmas due to absences.

2. Plan music for a set of English handbells to celebrate Christmas with handbells. Most English handbell sets are owned by churches because they are very expensive, but some schools, community groups, and musicians own bells.

   Find handbell pieces for the number of ringers that are available. Choose full choir pieces for seven or more ringers. Choose 2-octave selections for seven to eight musicians or 3-octave music for nine to 10 ringers.

3. Find handbell ensemble music for fewer than seven musicians with the Jeffers Handbells Music Selection Assistant. This easy-to-use on-line tool is a standard for music directors. Use it to choose music by level of difficulty and church season in addition to the size of the handbell group.

4. Choose from the many alternatives that use just a few bells at a time if you do not have an ensemble. "The Creative Use of Handbells in Worship" by Hal H. Hopson offers both general ideas and specific hymn accompaniments. Some of the more effective techniques for using a few handbells with Christmas music include:

   Treble ostinato pattern -- Use bells in a repeating melodic pattern.

   See-saw pattern -- Needs only two bells. Repeat scale degrees 5 and 6 in eighth notes throughout a hymn verse. (Example: "Go, Tell it on the Mountain," often sung in the key of F, can use C and D pitches alternating throughout.)

   Handbell descant -- Play a the alto or tenor part as a melody on handbells.

   Cluster chords -- Choose appropriate basic chords for handbells to emphasize the melody.

   Random ring -- Handbell ringers can process into the service ringing random notes.

Tips & Warnings

• For Music Directors: Use extra handbells to play along with choir and organ pieces for Christmas sparkle, even if you have a handbell ensemble

• Choose the high treble handbells for best effect if you have less than a full choir. People hear the high frequencies better, and Christmas music needs a joyful, bright tone.

• Build interest and participation in handbell music by programming handbells regularly. Handbells are not for Christmas only.

References

• American Guild of English Handbell Ringers regional and local events
• Jeffers Handbell "Music Selection Assistant"
• Creative Use of Handbells in Worship; Hal H. Hopson; 1997

Resources

• Allegro Handbell Ensemble: About Handbells
• Schulmerich: Products - Handbells: Overview
• Handbell Services, Inc.: Gifts
• themusicdepot.com: Handbell Party Crackers