Handbells in the Hymns

When I first began at my current church, I was just in charge of handbells. The group played about six to eight times a year, but I was thinking about how to incorporate handbells into our services more regularly. I was brand new to this church, and I wanted to win their trust over time. I remembered a handbell resource, The Use of Handbells in Worship, both volumes published by Hope Publishing, which incorporates a few handbells into common hymns. These worked wonderfully, and I fully recommend that everyone purchase these two resources. The first volume is especially good if you have a partial choir, while the second volume is especially good if you have one to three people. At my church, we often had one, maybe two other people, and myself, so we drew from the second volume most of the time. However, being United Methodist, sometimes the hymns that were selected weren’t popular enough across denominations to warrant arrangements in this collection, so I had to learn from Hal Hopson’s writing and do some myself.

For the vast majority of hymns, I used four notes, often in the C6–C7 range. If it was just me on Sunday, I could easily four-in-hand these bells, but if there was someone else, then we could each have two of the four notes and Shelly ring an octave above also. Composing this handbell descant/ostinato was truly trial and error. I would identify the key, and I knew that most likely I’d need the first and fifth of the key. So, in the key of F, I knew I would need F6 and C7, and then I would look at the harmony. If the chord had either an F or a C in it, then I knew that bell would sound good. If there was a chord that didn’t have an F or a C in it, then I had to strategically choose which bell I should introduce. For example, I chose a G in the hymn tune MESSIAH, which we Methodists use for the hymn “Take My Life, and Let It Be.”

But just because I can use either an F or a C in every chord doesn’t mean that I should. So, if it turns out that I could add another bell, then I would. I added an A in MESSIAH. Moving notes are usually far more interesting than stagnant notes, so if a chord didn’t change, I might still change which bell I was ringing.

Because I figured the hymns would largely be sight-read every Sunday, I knew I might need to add a little crutch that I wouldn’t ordinarily need. I color-coded the notes so that each person, for example, player one in red and player two in green, would more easily be able to see what their notes were. Because this rarely allows for the right-hand-is-on-the-line and left-hand-is-on-the-space approach, this additional crutch was acceptable.

I’ve put in over 10,000 hours in Sibelius and was sometimes bored while in seminary, so I’ve been able to neatly engrave the music as follows. This way, a tenor like myself could still sing harmony on the middle stanzas, as is our custom, while easily following along when I was playing bells on the first and final stanzas. But you don’t need to be good with software; simple colored pens and writing in note names would do.

When I first began at my current church, I was just in charge of handbells. The group played about six to eight times a year, but I was thinking about how to incorporate handbells into our services more regularly. I was brand new to this church, and I wanted to win their trust over time. I remembered a handbell resource, The Use of Handbells in Worship, both volumes published by Hope Publishing, which incorporates a few handbells into common hymns. These worked wonderfully, and I fully recommend that everyone purchase these two resources. The first volume is especially good if you have a partial choir, while the second volume is especially good if you have one to three people. At my church, we often had one, maybe two other people, and myself, so we drew from the second volume most of the time. However, being United Methodist, sometimes the hymns that were selected weren’t popular enough across denominations to warrant arrangements in this collection, so I had to learn from Hal Hopson’s writing and do some myself.

For the vast majority of hymns, I used four notes, often in the C6–C7 range. If it was just me on Sunday, I could easily four-in-hand these bells, but if there was someone else, then we could each have two of the four notes and Shelly ring an octave above also. Composing this handbell descant/ostinato was truly trial and error. I would identify the key, and I knew that most likely I’d need the first and fifth of the key. So, in the key of F, I knew I would need F6 and C7, and then I would look at the harmony. If the chord had either an F or a C in it, then I knew that bell would sound good. If there was a chord that didn’t have an F or a C in it, then I had to strategically choose which bell I should introduce. For example, I chose a G in the hymn tune MESSIAH, which we Methodists use for the hymn “Take My Life, and Let It Be.”

But just because I can use either an F or a C in every chord doesn’t mean that I should. So, if it turns out that I could add another bell, then I would. I added an A in MESSIAH. Moving notes are usually far more interesting than stagnant notes, so if a chord didn’t change, I might still change which bell I was ringing.

Because I figured the hymns would largely be sight-read every Sunday, I knew I might need to add a little crutch that I wouldn’t ordinarily need. I color-coded the notes so that each person, for example, player one in red and player two in green, would more easily be able to see what their notes were. Because this rarely allows for the right-hand-is-on-the-line and left-hand-is-on-the-space approach, this additional crutch was acceptable.

I’ve put in over 10,000 hours in Sibelius and was sometimes bored while in seminary, so I’ve been able to neatly engrave the music as follows. This way, a tenor like myself could still sing harmony on the middle stanzas, as is our custom, while easily following along when I was playing bells on the first and final stanzas. But you don’t need to be good with software; simple colored pens and writing in note names would do.

The Rev. Kevin Quick is the Minister of Music at Highland UMC in Raleigh, North Carolina. An ordained deacon in the UMC, he leads the handbell choir, sanctuary choir, praise band, and orchestra, in addition to special music ensembles that play only seasonally, such as the bluegrass band and jazz ensemble. He has been ringing since 4th grade in churches, when his parents saw handbell choir as a free babysitting opportunity. He has explored all aspects of handbell ringing, including ringing in Virtuoso, Distinctly Bronze, and The Raleigh Ringers for five years during college; solo ringing; directing; and recording himself playing entire handbell choir pieces by himself, especially during the pandemic. In his free time, he loves watching TV and movies, playing board games, and running around Raleigh playing Pokémon Go.