24th August 2022

I arrived slightly apprehensive as to what lay ahead in the next 3 hours as Sandra Winter is a well known arranger of Handbell music and was invited to, hopefully,  help us to improve our overall performance and give constructive criticism to make our concert performances more enjoyable, both for us as performers and also the audience. Wendy had chosen 4 pieces of music for us to concentrate on for the afternoon.

Firstly we played Meditation on Blaenwern with Wendy conducting. Sandra conducted next and taking small sections of the music in turn, she asked us to listen to each other and to our own bells so that we played at the correct timing and volume so as to improve the overall performance.

Our next piece was Shepherds Hey which is a piece played entirely using mallets to strike the bells. This is quite a fun piece to ring but does tend to get faster as we play it, so Wendy has trouble reining us in or decides to go with us. Sandra suggested we hold our mallets closer to the bells in order to keep better time and also to click mallets together more quietly which really made a difference to the overall effect.

Third on the agenda was You Raise Me Up. This is a beautiful piece of music and Sandra suggested several things to improve the overall performance particularly holding the bells out to let the sound resonate. When we play this piece well it really makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!

The last piece of the afternoon is quite a new piece for us called Highland Cathedral. We all enjoy playing this piece of music which involves several techniques, singing bells, chimes and mallets as well as lots of bell changes. We played this really well.

This afternoon was completed by tea and cakes, and I hope everyone, like me, enjoyed the experience and gained from Sandra's expertise.

Josie Bettany