Hand Bell Group
We meet every Friday morning at 10am at 22 Marsh Road, Wilmcote, CV37 9XR and rehearse for an hour and a half with a short break for coffee and a chat. What do we rehearse for ? Well, we have rung for numerous church services and have been asked to ring for private function.
Hand bells make instant music which makes them an excellent musical instrument for beginners wanting to play music. Within five minutes of starting ringing you are playing chords to accompany a melody that can be sung or played on a piano. Hand bells require no tuning on the part of a player so they can start to make music right away making this an instrument which is accessible to all.
There is no need to read music since we can ring from music written in numbers. All you need to know is the number of your bell to be able to ring quite complicated tunes. However, for those of you that are musical we have a two octave set of English hand bells. The term ‘English’ refers to the clapper mechanism rather than the country of origin. English hand bell clappers move on a single plane (back and forth) rather than any direction or axis, like a school bell.
It is great fun making music in a group – you learn together how to make the instrument play in the correct place at the correct time, you learn with others the values of notes on the printed page, and work as a team to replicate rhythmic patterns. Being a part of a hand bell group fosters community and cooperation.
We welcome new players of all abilities the only requirement is a willingness to learn and to work together with others to have fun in striving to make beautiful music.
