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Alaska’s OLÉ Handchime/Handbell Classes Fall 2023 and Spring 2024
OLÉ is an acronym for Opportunities in Lifelong Education. OLÉ has diverse offerings from structural engineering to a study on Jane Austin’s book Pride and Prejudice to Math puzzlers to armchair traveler groups. Learning takes place with no testing.
In the Fall of 2023, I taught an eight-week course in ringing. The goal was to have fun making music with others. There were no musical prerequisites for the class, just a desire to learn to play and make music with a group of soon-to-become handbell musicians. About half of the students knew nothing
about music notation and only one had rung (in the distant past).
Thus began our weekly adventure together. First each student learned to ring. We did up and down scales in key of C with each ringer ringing two chimes, then two bells…as ringers do. The next week we learned a little music theory and where to look on the score for each ringer’s notes. I had them
mark their notes. We rang simple music with chords and worked on ringing together AND watching the director.
In my Northern Lights Ringers (NRL) choir there is a couple who do change ringing in church towers. One learned in his hometown in England. The other rang in Houston, TX before coming to Alaska. These two came and did a short presentation to the OLÉ class. One of the change ringers had the class do a simple change ring. At the end of the eight-week class the group was ringing both chimes and bells with echoes, vibrato,swing, shake (with crescendo), and marts. At our last lesson we played our favorite pieces:
1) Reverie -- adding a singing bell
2) Theme from Finlandia (Music of the Masters 2 – Sharon Elery)
3) Joy and Delight (Brenda Austin)
My biggest challenge was that people go on trips during the course. When I knew of an absence, I found a sub from my Northern Lights Ringers choir.
Spring 2024 semester I was asked to teach another eight-week ringing class.
I had some new ringers and many repeat ringers in this class. I often paired them up on a position, which seemed to help address my challenge of missing parts of a melody when a ringer was gone. It also helped to pair a person with some ringing experience with a person with no experience.
Our favorite pieces for this class were Reverie (again), Canon in D (Music of the Masters 2—Sharon Elery), and Joyful, Joyful (Valerie Stephenson).
These eight classes culminated in our ringing one piece in my church’s annual fundraiser, Merry May Melodies. Each ringer had the option of ringing or not. I was surprised that all but one wanted to ring for the program. The one who did not ring was willing to come and support the others. The group very successfully rang both chimes and bells for Sandra Eithun’s Reverie…we added wind chimes at the beginning and end of the piece. One of my NLR members, a professional musician, commented to me after the concert about how musically the group played…both phrasing and dynamics. It was truly lovely and well-played.
I have been asked again to have another class because the former class members want to ring more and have friends who also want to join.
What a joy it is to make music with chimes and bells!
Caroline Valentine, Alaska Chair, Area 10
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