Georgia State Handbell Festival

A few weeks ago I had the priviledge of directing the Georgia Baptist's State Handbell Festival. I had a wonderful time!

The skinny guy up on the platform is me.

We had a fun Q&A time before the actual festival began. I love answering questions like that. Totally unprepared and off-the-cuff. It's one of my favorite ways to teach.

When all the groups played together it was wonderful. They had come prepared so we were able to work on more expressive things like dynamics, rubato sections, etc. and not just worry about getting the notes.

Here are a few pictures.

We met at FBC, Marrietta. We fit 22 (I think it was 22) choirs into the gymnasium there. Whew! That's a lot of people in that size space.

Here I am holding up the walking track.

You can see more pictures of this famous skinny conductor and the GA Baptist Handbell Festival on my Music Blog. Lyndel's Music Blog and more handbell festival pics (I realized it's been awhile since I posted there, so I put some up there.)

Georgia on My Mind

I have a fun weekend ahead. I'm going to Georgia! and not just for the boiled peanuts.

(Actually, I think I've only had boiled peanuts once and I remember they were NOT something I would put in my mouth a second time.)

Ah, If it was fresh peach season. Mmmm. There's nothing like fresh peaches!

But that's not it either. I'm going for handbells! I have the distinct priviledge of being the director for the Georgia Baptist State Handbell Festival. We'll be meeting at FBC, Marietta. There will be over 20 choirs there all playing together and I will be the one who gets to direct them! How cool is that?



I'm sure I'll be updating FaceBook via Twitter while I'm away, so if you want to know the latest from Georgia you'll know where to look. hahaha

A Really Big Bell

I posted - a few posts ago - about the handbell festival our handbell choir went to here in Middle Tennessee. http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2009/03/handbell-festival.html

Two weeks before that Cheryl and I went to East Tennessee for their handbell festival. Hannah and Benjamin went with us. http://papalyndel.blogspot.com/2009/02/handbells.html

I wanted you all to see this bell! The handbell choir from FBC, Sevierville has 6 octaves of bells! (or is it 7 octaves? I'm thinking 7. I should look it up. Yep - if you have bells down to C2 you have 7 octaves.)

The bell in this picture is a C2 which means it is 3 octaves below middle C! Wow! It is made out of aluminum instead of brass because the bells are too heavy when they are that big and made of brass. (Notice the adorable grandchildren.)

Handbell Festival

Our handbell choir went to the Middle Tennessee Handbell Festival this weekend. We had a great time and worked on some beautiful songs.

There were 15 choirs. Here's what it sounds like.

Here's a video where I'm standing between Mrs. Nancy and Mrs. Reigh Ann.

Wow! Look at the fancy mallet work.

Afterwards, on Saturday, we ate at Macaroni Grill. YUMMM!

Handbell Festival - Day 19 PPCD

Our handbell choir at the MTBHBF at FBC, Mt. Juliet. (We're the group in the white shirts.)

Our Celebration Bells handbell choir played at the Middle Tennessee Baptist Handbell Festival this weekend. We had a great time. Tim Waugh, the clinician, was wonderful. We learned a lot. But probably what we enjoyed the most was hearing other handbell choirs. It was very inspiring.

We loved the way the choir from Tulip Grove Baptist Church played. Mrs. Nancy commented, "even if you were deaf you would enjoy that choir" because they move their bells so beautifully as they play.

We played four songs with all of the choirs - very beautiful songs that you will probably hear for offertories soon - and we played one song by ourselves. We were a bit nervous since it was our first time to ever attend a bell festival, much less play for judges. The judges had very nice things to say about our playing. (I knew they would.) Here's some of their comments.

"very well presented"

"very worshipful"

"good energetic first measure"

"good contrast in dynamics"

"you look great - it's OK to smile at the beginning and middle just like you did at the end" (I told you we were nervous.)

"this piece has very complex synchopation which was executed exceptionally well"

and there were more, but I don't want to brag too much...

After the festival we ended up at Olive Garden for lunch - yummmm!

oops, sorry, picture is a little blurry

By the way, it is day 19 of our Bow the Knee Hilldale's Passion Play Countdown.

Handbells

I love handbells!

I don't know if I've mentioned that lately. What brought it to mind just now is that I just got a box a new handbell gloves in the mail today. Mmmmmm, new gloves feel sooo good on your hands. I bought black - very classy. Perhaps we'll try another color next time.




We're going to the Middle Tennessee Baptist Handbell Festival this Friday and Saturday. It's at FBC, Mt. Juliet again this year. (I'm going to offer our fancy new Family Life Center for next year.) We'll be playing an arrangement I wrote of How Great Is Our God.

I ran across a handbell choir playing one of my arrangements on YouTube. You can see it here http://bearhollowmusic.blogspot.com/

Handbell Festival - Feb. 22-23

The Handbell Festival for Middle Tennessee is February 22-23. Our handbell choir will be attending. We had our first look at the music for festival last night. They made some good choices for this year's music.

For those of you who have never been to a handbell festival, this is how it works. We will join 15 or so other choirs from across the state and ring four songs together. We will also play one song by ourselves for "adjudication" which is a fancy way of saying we'll ring for some judges who will then give us a score and tell us all the wonderful things we did as we rang.

Tim Waugh will be our clinician this year. That means he will be directing all of the choirs when we play together.

This is a good picture of Tim, but it doesn't show his pony-tail. He's a great director and makes festival fun!




You can see all of this info and more at http://www.tnbaptist.org/CalendarEvent.asp?eventid=1006&cat=music&subcat=events04