First Reformed Church » hand bells

Bells Take a Rest

Erie Beemsterboer — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:21:06 +0000

During the summer months. the bells and the ringers will take a rest. Early in September, I will ask for volunteers to give the bells a good polish, so they will be shining and nice when we start rehearsing and playing again. Let me know if you want to play or can help with the cleaning, so I can take all of it into account when planning for the Fall.

It does not take much to be able to play, as long as you can count and follow two notes (if needed, colored for your part) you can try it. We welcome young and old up in the balcony to come and join us on Sunday mornings

Handbells Take a Break

Erie Beemsterboer — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:46:35 +0000

The Hand Bell choir played twice during the month of December. We opened the month with an Advent song with the addition of John Coakley on the clarinet. That was a really nice combination.

The month was closed by playing the postlude with the Janet on the piano. We have a nice group of people who are willing to play and or willing to learn how to play, and that shows when we perform. Every time the group consists of different players. We have enough room to play now we have three brand new tables on the balcony. Thanks to Guy Suabedissen, who made the tables! We gave him a nice “thank-you” present, which his wife, Lily, put under the Christmas tree.

Since the sanctuary will not be in use during January and February, we will take a break in January. Our next rehearsal will be on Feb 6th at 9:50a.m., so that we can start preparing for the season of Lent.

Bell Choir and Music Room

Erie Beemsterboer — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:59:55 +0000

We have had two performances not too far apart and the choir did really well. Both times I received numerous compliments about how well the choir sounded. I really enjoy hearing these compliments, but without all the great and hard work of the ringers, it would not have been possible. It is not always easy for the group to practice; most of the time someone is absent. And that makes a huge difference in how the piece sounds. Also, the layout and acoustics of our practice room are quite different from the sounds in the sanctuary. Therefore, it is a big accomplishment for the whole group that we did so well. We are starting a few new pieces so that we will keep enhancing the worship services with this beautiful music.

If you have not been in the music room lately, you are in for a surprise! The room is getting a lot of use; two organizations use the room during the week as their office. The choir director and bell choir director use the room to store their music and bells with all the accompanying equipment in the room.

And we do have a lot of music! I have been working for weeks to catalogue what we have. So far, I have worked through most of our single copy music, that is, music with just one song on it, and we have over 700 different pieces of them. I have a few more to go, and then I can start with the multi-copy music — all the different books we have with two or more songs. That requires a little more work as one wants to know more than just the title of the book. So it will be a while before I am finished, but meanwhile we have been using this catalogue already, which makes me happy as it is a lot of work. However, I see it as very useful work.

How can we ever use all (or at least some of) this music if we do not know what we have! The next step, after all the cataloguing, will be to decide which songs we will never use again. And there are definitely candidates for that, but it must be done with a group of people who know more of our church history and of music than I can do on my own. I will let you know when we can start on this part of the project.

Bell Choir

Erie Beemsterboer — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:00:47 +0000

In September, we will start with the bell choir again. In July, I went to Westminster Choir College and I learned a host of new things about playing bells. All kinds of newÂ techniques, new ways of using the bells to enhance our worship services. I am looking forward to include some of these with our new choir.

We will meet every Sunday before the service from 9:50 a.m. until 10:20 a.m. and start learning all these things. I hope to see a lot of faces upstairs in the music room to help me make beautiful music with these wonderful bells!