Last December was my last month of ringing handbells for now. The semester turned out to go well for bells. We had fewer members than expected so I ended up ringing 3-4 bells at once on bells that aren’t as easy to double. As much as I will miss ringing the bells, I’m really looking forward to what will be in it’s place.
On Monday, I will take a ballet class for the first time in a year and a half. To make this worse, I’m not starting low either; I’m starting in the advanced class. I still have all the knowledge of steps in my head and for the most part I have my balance. But I don’t have the muscle or endurance for this yet, so that first class is going to hurt sooooo bad. I can’t wait.

Now here’s the hard part…they do pointe right after my class. I really really shouldn’t do pointe ever again in my life (I have tendonitis in my feet, very large arches that break pointe shoes way too fast, and I pulled a legiment in a toe my senior year that makes that foot never as strong as it was). But I really really WANT to do pointe again. It was one of the hardest things to do the day I took my ‘last’ pointe class. Now I know that it wouldn’t be exactly healthy for me to do this, but maybe I could take one pointe class sometime just to test the waters….It would cost $40 for a pair of shoes…but I mean, it could mean so much more!!!!

Well most of you that read this think doing pointe is disgusting, so you probably won’t support me in my idea. Ah well. I’ve been a rebel before, I can do it again!

Time for me to dance!

Tonight was the first night of handbells this year and we played through many of the songs for the year. The problem is…I could play the songs very well the first time through. I play quarter notes all the time. In one of the songs, I play the B bell once…once! And I play all boring quarter notes on the A bell. To make matters worse, we have two different women that use to direct handbell choirs and thus, both have ideas about how we should be playing everything and not leaving everything up to the real director. One woman is better about just playing her part and enjoying it, but even she is frustrated because we practice songs for 30 minutes a piece. I’m sorry, but I’m with her on this one, I can’t continue to play the same song for 30 minutes. Handbells should be something that glorifies God. I really wish it was that, but now it’s just something that frustrates me. I don’t really want to quit, but at the same time, I can’t think of a way to change anything so that I enjoy handbells again. There are many ringers there that can’t handle more difficult pieces and the higher bells that can be rung four in hand are all taken. So, I am considering quiting handbells.

This presents a different issue. I still need an activity, outside of school, with a group of people, doing something I enjoy. I could take a dance class somewhere (would cost me money and I’d have to find a ride). I thought about singing in a church choir, but I can’t dedicate every Sunday to a single church right now, I visit family too much. So I’m open to ideas and really really need one.

I’m done with handbells for the school year. We played fairly well today and I’m glad we’re done with the Amazing Grace piece.
The Rondo Passacaglia was wonderful though and the sun decided to shine through for the first service just for this piece.

I have a bone to pick about bells (and others) in services. Everyone always calls it a performance when it shouldn’t be a performance at all. It’s an offering to God that happens to be shared with other people that they might be inspired by it also. For this reason, I don’t clap after pieces during church. We worked very hard on these pieces for today and I’m glad the congregation enjoyed them, but I’d rather they didn’t clap.
Same thing goes for singing, dancing, piano playing, etc. This is just my humble opinion though.

I have been frustrated with this piece for a little while now, but have been trying to like it. I have decided tonight though that it is ok for me not to like this piece. The melody is very plain and not challenging, but also the harmony is very plain and in the high register. The song seems to drag on at some points for me. I ring very monotonous notes for most of the song, which Samuel says are very important. For me they are very boring though. The tonality of the piece does not change at all either. And for the last twenty measures, I have a total of three notes; one of which is the last note in the piece.
Also, at the beginning of the piece there are windchimes and random ringing. It sounds very confusing because the random ringing is so spread out. It sounds like the song has not begun yet and it doesn’t flow well into the rest of the piece.
This piece will be played on Sunday, May 9th (along with the Rondo piece) at 8:00am and 10:30am services at the United Methodist Church in Iowa City (corner of Dubuque and Jefferson).

Handbells has not felt this good in a long time. We played through the Hosanna, Laud Hosanna and it went well and I stayed in my grumpy “i’m sick of playing the same two notes at constant quarter notes” mood. Then we played our Amazing Grace which is even less inspiring for me.

Then we started a piece for Mother’s Day that some others are playing at a conference in June. It’s called Rondo Passacaglia. But this piece is so unbelievably beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes. It was a challenge which I haven’t had at bells for a while and it was just gorgeous. I can’t remember being this inspired by handbell music. I was going to say that I didn’t want to play it in May because then I would have less rehearsal time and more homework time, but after hearing it I just can’t say no. It’s that beautiful.

If anyone wants to hear this piece, it will be played on Mother’s Day (May 9th) at both the 8:00am and 10:30am services at the United Methodist Church in Iowa City (corner of Dubuque and Jefferson).