From Larry: I had shoulder surgery in May 2020. The result of this was being left-handed for some months. Carla suggested creating some six-bell music to make playing possible for me, with the idea of playing it as a four-in-hand ringer plus a two-in-one/good-hand ringer. There also would be the possibility of someone playing these pieces as a solo six-in-hand ringer, though damping effectively would be a significant additional challenge. A trio of ringers with two bells each would also work nicely!
Because there are only a vanishingly small number of (interesting) melodies with six or fewer notes, and because there will always be at least one scale tone missing, all of these six-bell arrangements are accompanied. The accompaniments are intended to be interesting for the pianist as well as making each piece a collaboration between bells and keys.
But don’t think that six-bell music has to be simple. These, like the rest of our music, are interesting enough to be concert pieces. And while some are fairly easy, others are quite challenging. We’ve provided demonstration videos for you to watch so you can determine whether a particular piece is for you.
Our scores for six accompanied handbells contain the following:
- A complete score for handbells and accompaniment (piano), so it’s clear how the two instruments work together;
- A separate handbell score which allows the ringers to have the music on one music stand without needing page turns; and
- A separate accompaniment (piano) score, which often has a small enough number of pages to fit across a standard piano music desk. “Often” means that some of them will require one or two page turns, but you can minimize that challenge by deciding how to lay out/assemble the individual pages.
Enjoy!
