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Greetings, Area 12 —
It’s that time of year when the days are shorter, the nights are longer, and – even in the desert – a cold dampness descends at night. Here in Vallejo – which is definitely not the desert! – nightfall brings a thick, creeping frog, which is beautiful in its own delicate diaphanous way.
But hope is here, too, even in the winter’s fog. Hope, as well as peace, joy, and love all swirled together in our preparations for Advent and Christmas ringing. How wonderful that we are able to make such beautiful music! As you all prepare for this busiest of ringing seasons, I hope you will take some time to be still and savor the magic of our bells and chimes, and the connection we as ringers have with each other.
Speaking of connections, a few weeks ago, Area 12 received the sad news that former Area and National board member David Ruder has passed away. Many of you will remember him as the host of so many years of the Bay Area Spring Ring at Valley Church in Cupertino. When I first moved to California, Dave was one of the first people to ask me to teach at his event. I had never actually taught a “real” handbell class before, but Dave encouraged me to do it, and I have since come to love teaching! He was also one of the first to give me an opportunity to conduct massed ringing – at that year’s Spring Ring, Dave conducted one mass piece, William Kyle conducted one, and I conducted a third. I will be forever grateful to Dave for believing in me and giving me a chance. I know that I would not be where I am, doing the things I do, without him. I was honored to be able to play bells at his memorial service as part of a “Bay Area Handbell Team” put together for that occasion.
I encourage you to reflect about who helped you, who gave you a chance, who believed in you, and if possible, tell them how much they made a difference in your life. Don’t be surprised, though, if someone tells you how much of a difference YOU made in theirs!
May Christmas peace be in all our hearts as we ring this season.
Until next month,
| | | | In Memory of David Ruder
David Ruder served the Area 12 Board from 1990 through 1994, and 2000 to 2008, including as the Area 12 Chair from 2004-2006. He also served on AGEHR/HMA Education committees in the intervening years.
David Ruder directed and taught handbells for more than four decades throughout the USA and more than a dozen countries, including China, Pakistan, Morocco, Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Spain, and Canada. David received a Bachelor of Theology degree from Jessup University; a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and a Masters in Music History and Choral Music from San Jose State University. He also completed graduate work in Church and Choral Music at the University of Southern California. He was a composer/arranger, writer, massed handbell director, and workshop leader, and has served on various boards in the handbell world. He served as the long-time handbell director for Valley Church in Cupertino, California – hosting the Bay Area Spring Ring for many years – and in the Las Lomita's School District, mostly at La Entrada School in Menlo Park, California, teaching music.
In September 1991, Area 12 Chair Gary Delk created a committee to develop a music level grading system. David Ruder was the major driver of this effort; as a music educator, he was familiar with the grading system used for band music and helped develop the initial “Area XII” music grading system. The system was copyrighted in 1992 and the Area 12 Board adopted it in 1993. David presented this music grading system at the 1993 National Director Seminar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was adapted and adopted by the Guild in 1994. The grading system has had some tweaks over the years but is used by many directors and groups as an integral part of selecting music for their groups to play.
The Area 12 Board extends its deepest condolences to David’s wife Dian, and his family and friends.
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Nominations for Elected Board Positions
It is that time to prepare for elections. We are looking for nominations for the three elected positions: Chair (6-year cycle), Secretary (2-year cycle), and Treasurer (2-year cycle). We need two candidates to be placed on the ballot for each position. Would you or someone you know be interested in a nomination for the ballot?
In addition, we have openings for the following appointed positions: Events Coordinator, Membership Director, and Member-at-Large.
If you are interested in or know of someone who might be interested in any of these elected or appointed positions, please contact Marci Nuoffer at pastchair.area12@handbellmusicians.org with any nominations.
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Beth Loebig
Education Liaison
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Hello Handbell friends!
As we move into the general madness of the holiday season, I also find myself looking ahead to 2026. There are many wonderful events in the planning phases and I look forward to seeing many of you at local events as well as Neon City Rhythms in Las Vegas! Area 12 will also be at the California All-State Music Education Conference (CASMEC) from January 15 - 17 in Sacramento, CA. We have been attending this event for over five years. It always a pleasure to meet the students and music educators. Every year, I meet music educators from all over California who are interested in learning more about handbells. One of my goals is to provide resources to support handbell programs in Area 12 and connect new handbell musicians with mentors who can help them in their handbell journey. If you are interested in becoming a handbell mentor, please fill out the short form by clicking the link below.
Area 12 Mentors
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. May your concerts be plentiful, your gigs be shiny, and musicians be joyful. Happy ringing!
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Web Weavings
Feeling like you need some handbell holiday music?
Check out the Area 12 website (https://area12.handbellmusicians.org/calendar-of-events/) to find concerts near you. Events are listed by regions (click on the region to find events sorted by region) as well as the links to virtual events. (I'm looking forward to the Tintabulations stream on December 21st!)
Or you can browse all the events.
Have a public concert or event in Area 12? You can submit it to the Area 12 website calendar here (https://area12.handbellmusicians.org/submit-your-event/)
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Dear LA/OC/Ventura,
We are nearing the 5th anniversary of the Area 12 Virtual Ensemble formed during the COVID blackout! Ninety handbell musicians got together and made sure that Christmas 2020 would have handbells.
Enjoy this blast from the past, "conducted" by Alex Guebert:
Carol of the Bells
The First Noel
I am thankful that in the year of our Lord 2025 we can enjoy performing live and in public. I encourage you to support your local handbell ensembles by attending as many holiday handbell concerts as possible!
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Hello SoCal,
I have to admit that I am in complete denial that the holidays are right around the corner. Typically, by now I have picked up a few gifts and set them aside and have a few ideas about what to get people. Not this year! I am so grateful to my directors for planning ahead and getting us ready for the coming holiday concert season. If you have a director who’s been planning since August, I hope you’ll send them a thank you as well.
In the last two weeks I’ve gotten two messages from local ringers asking questions about replacing, repairing, evaluating, and potentially selling handbells. I’ve been ringing for 45 years now (yikes!) and have a pretty good knowledge of all things handbells, so if you have even a general question, please feel free to reach out, I’m happy to share what I know with you.
I hope you’ll also take a minute to check out the Area 12 calendar for concerts that might be in your area, and if you are putting on a concert, we encourage you to have your event put on the calendar. As long as bells are involved, Area 12 is happy to put your event on our web calendar.
Thinking ahead for 2026, the SoCal Spring Ring in Oceanside will be May 1-2. We are honored and grateful to have Barbara Meinke as our clinician. We know that many groups have a tight budget for music, so we’ll be working toward choosing music that can either be played in other venues, such as a church service, or will be part of the Area 12 summer conference in Las Vegas, so you’ll get a head start on learning the repertoire for that event. More information coming soon.
Wishing you a wonderful and joyous holiday season.
Blessings,
Carol Pickford
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For information on Northern Nevada concerts, events, and other opportunities,
click here.
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Howdy!
I know we're entering into the busiest time of year for most handbell musicians, but I know some of us are also working out what we're going to be playing in the Spring. Along with selecting literature comes the process of assigning bells, so I thought I'd write an article on bell assignments.
Bell assignments are one of those things that divide people into basically two camps – to change or not to change ringers’ assignments. I’m firmly on the side of changing assignments for the most part because it allows for so much more flexibility in choosing literature, not to mention building technique and musicianship in each ringer. However, my article isn’t about debating this, but to offer some tips as to how to make bell assignments if you do change assignments.
The first thing is to look at the music and know what the individual assignments will entail. I "air bell" through each part so that I can see what skills are needed and also have some problem solvers ready to go.
The second thing is harder and takes some time and experience with your ringers. Do you know what their individual strengths and weaknesses are? Here’s a list of some skills you might want to consider:
- Ringing and damping technique in general
- Sense of beat and subdivision
- on the beat, frontside, backside, stable tempo, followers or leaders
- Rhythm reading
- Reading pitches and the ability to move to other positions
- Physical ability, including vision
- Bell and technique changes such as weaving, 4-in-hand, sharing, going quickly from mallets to ringing, etc.
- Attitude and personal interaction/social skills such as high energy, strong willed, confident, committed, self awareness/ability to self reflect/take direction
- Learning style – visual, aural, kinesthetic
- Musicianship skills like knowledge of genres/styles, theory, sight reading, reading ahead, good practice ethic, sense of ensemble, watching the director
When you know what each part in the music needs and each of the ringer's skills, then you get to decide if you want to leave each ringer in their comfort zone, or is it time to push them a bit to gain/get better at new skills? Also based on those skills, consider who the ringers will be standing next to. Will they be the helper or the helpee? It amazes me how much a kind, confident folder partner with good musicianship skills can help the less experienced person gain confidence and grow as a musician!
Hopefully, some of these ideas will help next time you have to sit down and do some assignments. Enjoy your performances with your groups and find some quiet time this Christmas to reflect and recuperate!
to connect and collaborate with your handbell community! It's awesome!
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SOUTHERN NEVADA
Alison Pruett
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Greetings,
I hope everyone is well rehearsed and ready for your holiday performances! Reminder that you can find concerts and other events at the Area 12 website. area12.handbellmusicians.org. Under the events tab, you can select a region to see what's going on there. You can also submit your own performances if you're a HMA member. If you're traveling this season, check out other area pages and see what's going on there. Should be some great concerts this time of year! Support all the bell choirs out there!
Alison Pruett
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IMPORTANT ALERT!
HMA national office would like to alert all choirs to the following:
GoFundMe has created 1.4 million fundraising pages for nonprofit organizations using public IRS data, without the permission of the nonprofits.
When utilizing the site's search tool, we found many HMA/AGEHR Area pages and other handbell ensemble pages. These may be pages that the Areas or ensembles created. However, if they are not, you can have the pages removed.
The creation of these pages is problematic on many fronts, including the sizable fees being charged to donors, the optional "tipping" for GoFundMe, directing donors off of nonprofit websites when doing online searches, and the overall lack of control by nonprofits for communicating and engaging our donors.
After being contacted by companies that represent nonprofits, the nonprofits themselves, and the media, GoFundMe is taking steps to rectify the problem. We recommend using using the search tool linked below to see if your Area or organization is listed, and making the choice for your organization as to whether to keep any page on their site.
Follow this link to search, https://www.gofundme.com/charity/claim/search and continue with the prompts.
Here are articles about this issue:
https://thenonprofittimes.com/npt_articles/gofundme-apologizes-for-nonprofit-pages-chaos/
https://nonprofitnewsfeed.com/news/1-4-million-donation-pages-without-permission-created-by-gofundme/
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to submit YOUR event!
(and get a social media push!)
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Check out out all the membership options and benefits for Handbell Musicians of America
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Our National Organization (click logos to get more info!) | | |
The Twelfth Tone is published on or around the first of each month, except July, by Area 12 of the Handbell Musicians of America (The Guild). The Guild is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the musical art of handbell/handchime ringing through education, community, and communication. The editor of this publication reserves the right to reject or modify copy.
We have over 1500 contacts, a 40% open rate (17% higher than the industry average) and a 13% click rate. Book your ad NOW!
For advertising types and rates:
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Payment is due prior to publication. Submission DEADLINE is the 20th of each month. No issue in July.
Please submit your ads via email to:
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Teachers: Would you like the use of a three octave set of handbells or handchimes to add interest and a new dimension to your music class?
Area 12 encourages schools and other educational institutions, both public and private, to develop educational programs using handbells and handchimes.
To support the development of such programs, Area 12 has six 3-octave sets of handbells and three 3-octave sets of handchimes for loan.
To learn more about the responsibilities and procedures for participating in this program, click here.
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