Residency Activities: Discussions, Workshops, and Master Classes

The Philadelphia Handbell Ensemble can present a very broad range of residency activities. From a single class focused on a specific topic to a multi-day event that covers everything one needs to know about the art of handbell ringing, we have the resources to deliver quality handbell education. Our programs can be adapted to any audience including schools, community organizations, church music programs, and the individual handbell ringer. Many ensemble members have taught at the regional and national level, and PHE even comes staffed with professional music teachers.

Book the Philadelphia Handbell Ensemble for a workshop today!

General Audiences

History of Bells and Handbells

Although handbells might seem like a reasonably modern instrument to the uninitiated, the history of bells and handbells stretches back at least to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Discover how bells have been used as a means of communication, how they were steeped in medieval superstition, how they have been used during centuries of liturgy, and how tune ringing evolved to what we know today.

Ringing for the Non-Ringer

Learn the fundamentals of the ringing arts. Students will learn how to hold, ring, and damp handbells and chimes of different sizes, as well as how to execute some basic bell techniques. Ringing a simple song will complete the session. This class can be designed for those who read music or those who do not.

Conductors

Bell Mastery

Are you tired of status quo handbell groups? This class will move your thinking beyond handbell mediocrity. Bell Mastery is a comprehensive learning environment on the subjects of The Instrument, The Ringer, and The Playing Environment and the Music. In this three-class session you will discover ways that will renew your approach to your handbell choirs and in you, yourself, as a director.

Basic Conducting

In this class designed for the beginning to intermediate-level conductor, various techniques and gestures will be explored: field of beating, use of gravity, point of rest, use of the left hand, and baton technique.

Intermediate Conducting

With basic conducting techniques firmly in hand, learn how to move beyond just directing the ringers and begin conducting the music. To practice encouraging a more expressive and musical performance, participants will each have an opportunity to conduct a demo choir and receive feedback.

Conducting: Individual Coaching

Master Conductor Kermit Junkert will provide feedback and advice on conducting techniques. Augment your coaching by directing the Philadelphia Handbell Ensemble, a choir that will follow your every move and provide feedback as well.

Care and Maintenance of Handbells

Delving into the finer points of the care and maintenance of handbells, we will dis-assemble and re-assemble a Schulmerich bell and learn how to replace failing parts. This will be followed by a discussion of general maintenance and guidance on how to optimize all adjustments in order to produce consistent bell performance and a great range of dynamics.

Learning Handbell Music: From Start to Finish

Using one or two handbell pieces, this session will go through the entire learning process, covering strategies on rote learning, unison exercises, rehearsal techniques, and the final polish right before the concert.

Demystifying Mixed Meters

For those who are confused or intimidated when meters change within a piece or when time signatures of 5/8, 7/8, or even 8/8 appear, this class is for you. It is designed to help both ringers and directors approach this music in a systematic and musical way. Repertoire will include some handbell classics and some newer pieces using mixed and asymmetric meters.

Ringers

SOS...Trebles in Trouble

In this instructional and hands-on session for multiple-bell treble techniques, ringers will have the opportunity to develop and perfect Shelley and four-in-hand, as well as to figure out the challenges of juggling bells, chimes, and mallets so that these techniques can be executed musically.

Bucket Banging: Beyond the Basics

This interactive session will allow students to learn and apply advanced ringing techniques for the largest bells (C2–C3). Ringers will learn that brute strength is not necessary for good bucket ringing; leverage and balance is what allows a small person to ring a bronze C2 with one hand. By the end of the class, students will know how to make use of body parts beyond hands and arms, how to make the weight of the bell work FOR them, how to plan and collaborate well with their ringing partners, and how to achieve the most musicality from the even the largest bells.

Basic Skills for Solo and Ensemble Ringing

Learn basics skills of linear ringing essential to performing solos or in small groups—weaving, passing, displacement, and picking up occasional secondary bells, as well as various damping techniques.

We Have Three Bells...Now What?

This is a hands-on session offering practice and coaching in the all-important technique of weaving. Ringers will have the opportunity to refine and develop their weaving skills through class exercises and with individual attention.

Case Studies in Advanced Bass Ringing

This class will examine a number of specific challenges for bass ringers and present solutions to those challenges. Types of challenges include "impossible" runs, distribution of weight across multiple ringers, and doubling of bass lines in music not written for larger sets of bells. Most examples will be taken from music currently being played by the Philadelphia Handbell Ensemble so students may see the solutions in action at PHE's concert.

All Eighth Notes Are Not Created Equal

Many ringers struggle with eighth-note passages. Using original materials and some standard handbell repertoire, this class will guide ringers through eighth note sequences of increasing degrees of difficulty.

Fun with Rhythm and Movement

Using a variety of rhythm games and other fun activities such as passing Koosh balls and bouncing tennis balls, this class will explore beat, meter, and rhythm. They may be games, but they are games with a musical purpose! This session will end with the infamous cup game.