I am not by any means a master gardener.  But every spring, I get excited when my local nursery begins to display their colorful annuals and perennials for sale. I shop for old favorites like geraniums and sweet-smelling marigolds, and add new varieties that are different and beautiful.  I fill my car with what I hope will be hardy plants that will grow and blossom, making my yard more beautiful, and I carefully plant, fertilize and water them throughout the summer.

Handbell choirs can be like that, too.  Each new season brings an opportunity to greet old friends and integrate new ringers into your ministry.  Providing the right mix of instruction, inspiration, and music can make your handbell ministry flourish and become an integral part of your church’s music ministry, both within your congregation and out in the community.

What are some essential steps to grow a handbell ministry?

1. Honor the time and gifts of your volunteers in music ministry by being prepared, punctual, enthusiastic, and on task as their director. Create a rehearsal plan and know what you want to accomplish for each piece you rehearse.  Communicate your goals clearly to the ensemble.  Expect regular attendance, punctuality, attention, and willingness to work on details from each of your ringers. Walk that tightrope between worship needs and ringer availability to schedule ringing in worship.  Since it is so difficult to rehearse with missing personnel, I highly recommend maintaining a sub list, so that occasional absences are less of a problem.
2. Meet your ringers where they are, not where you want them to be. This means selecting music that is within your ensemble’s ability to prepare and ring successfully. Music that is too easy can be boring.  Music that is too difficult can be frustrating. Just as important is allowing enough rehearsal time to adequately prepare the music you have selected.  Within the range of music in your folder, make sure to provide a variety of styles, with enough ease for working on nuance or specialized techniques, and enough challenges to provide opportunities for growth.
3. Find plentiful opportunities in worship for ringers to be successful and which complement and enhance the worship service. Since for most groups, handbells have to be moved and set up within the worship space each time they ring in church, it makes sense to play more than just a prelude or offertory.  Resources abound for processionals, peals, and accompaniments to enhance the entire service.
4. Find opportunities for children and youth to use handbells, both in worship and in Sunday school. Music for children is usually graded Level 1, and is for two or three octaves of handbells.  Remember: a C4 in the hands of a 9 year old is proportionally the same as a C3 to an adult!
5. Provide good music –

• which is at an appropriate difficulty level
• You can find explanations of the Handbell Difficulty Level system (rated from 1 (easiest) to 6 (most difficult) at http://handbellmusicians.org/music-resources/agehr-music-2/notation-guide/
•  which is written for the size bell choir you have (2 octaves to 6 or more octaves).
• Most published music is written in 2-3 octave or 3-5+ octave versions. It takes 7 people to ring two octaves, 11 to ring 3 octaves, 12 to ring 4 octaves, and 13 to ring 5 octaves, although experienced ensembles can sometimes get by with fewer folks.
• which is well crafted and interesting, with creative and emotional impact. I am quite proud of our Alfred Handbell catalog, which contains music written by leading composers and arrangers in our art form, and which ranges from very easy to quite difficult, and for all sizes of ensembles.
• which fits the worship style of your congregation. Our reproducible handbell collection Bells & Chimes for Special Times provides wonderful music for each season of the church year.
• which combines music for bells and choir, and bells with other instruments.
• Many possibilities abound! For example, Joe Martin and Tina English’s Ring the Christmas Bells is written for SATB with a part for 2 octave handbells.
• Many of our handbell anthems contain parts for other instruments. One example is All Praise and Glory which is a majestic upper level handbell anthem with an optional part for organ.
• Offer opportunities to grow skills. Attend your local or area festivals, director’s seminars, and national events. Handbell Musicians of America is an active organization, and provides a national event each year (the next one will be in July 2019 in St. Louis!), opportunities for advanced ringers to come together, and events in each of 12 regional areas. Find them at http://www.handbellmusicians.org and join!  HMA offers affordable Ringer Memberships as well! Watch fabulous groups from around the world on YouTube. Support your local community handbell ensemble, and attend live concerts whenever possible.
• Remember that musical ministries in the church exist to support the worship of the larger congregation, but also exist as small groups, and the bonds between members of a bell choir can become precious and long-lasting. Empower everyone in your group to minister to one another.

If you “plant” your handbell ministry in the right soil, with the tender care and encouragement, you will reap the rewards of a vibrant musical garden. Enjoy!

Sondra Tucker, BSE, MMus is Handbell Editor for Alfred Handbell, a division of Jubilate Music Group. She is a retired Organist/Choirmaster and Chair of Area 6 of Handbell Musicians of America, and teaches composition at the Master Series of classes sponsored by the Guild. She is in demand as a conductor and clinician for denominational and Guild events. Sondra is an accomplished organist and flutist, and her published works include music for choir, organ, and instrumental ensembles in addition to handbells. She lives in Memphis with her husband, and has two children and two granddaughters.

Jill and Michael Gallina have achieved national prominence as award-winning composers of musical plays and choral music for youth in elementary, middle, junior and senior high schools. Their clever creations in story and song have consistently won awards from the Parents Choice Foundation, American Library Service and ASCAP. Their music has been featured and performed on the Disney Channel, The World's Largest Concert, PBS, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Sing for the Cure, The New York Philharmonic, The Boston Pops, and in a documentary on children's rights for the United Nations. The Gallinas are inspiring music directors all across the English-speaking world with their music and educator workshops. They have presented in service clinics at numerous state Music Educator conferences as well as colleges and universities including, Villanova, LSU, College of NJ, Concordia College, Westminster Choir College and many more.  Their chorals have sold millions of copies and their musical plays have hundreds of performances across the globe each year. They are educating, enlightening, and engaging today’s youth with their consummate talents and creativity.

Jill , you and your husband Michael are “The Rodgers and Hammerstein” of elementary musicals!  What was your first published musical, and when?  How did that come about?

JG: The first play I ever wrote by myself was Santa and the Snowmobile. I had written it as a poem with music and sent it to Marjorie Farmer the late head editor of an educational music publisher. She gave me a play format to follow and asked me to set it as a musical play which I did. It became a best seller and Marjorie Farmer became one of my first mentors. The first musical we wrote together was Of Mice and Mozart. Michael had always been giving me great lines and suggestions for my musicals, so we decided to write one together and it became our first collaboration. We hadn't come up with a title for the play and we were discussing the story of having mice who lived in the woodwork of Mozart's house tell his story. Our daughter Kim (who was 10 at the time) piped up with "Why don't you call it ‘Of Mice and Mozart!’ ".  Thanks to Kim, that became the title of the play!

What are a few of the most rewarding things you enjoy most about what you’ve done as composers/clinicians through the years?

JG: Professionally, having our music performed from schools and concert stages and by orchestras such as the Boston Pops and The New York Philharmonic. Personally the most rewarding thing has been meeting so many dedicated and talented teachers around the country. Many of them have become close personal friends and we are so grateful for their encouragement, support and inspiration! We are truly blessed!

What is one of your favorite or funniest memories from a project or “from the road?”

JG: One hilarious incident comes to mind. We were on the road with one of our colleagues. One of our musicals was being performed and we went backstage with our colleague to wish the cast  of students and a few adults, good luck . One of the women with wild hair walked by and our colleague (thinking it was a wig and she was wearing it because she was probably in the show), went up to her and said with a shocked expression, "Funny, great wig!".  It turns out it was her REAL hair! We laugh about it to this day!

What did you want people to take away after seeing a performance of MR. PFISTER’S CHRISTMAS TIME TRAVELERS?

JG: The meaning in Mr. Pfister's Christmas Time Travelers is to remember to keep the message of  love, joy, and the true (Holy) Spirit of Christmas in your hearts and minds throughout the entire year!

Browse Jill Gallina's publications here.

Years ago, I had the privilege of participating in a week-long choral arranging workshop led by legendary choral composer/arranger Alice Parker, held at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.  That week spent with Ms. Parker had a tremendous impact on not only my own choral composing and arranging, but my eventual role as a publisher as well.  Of the many wise and invaluable things she said to the class, one of several that resonated with me was when she said “There are good marshmallows and bad marshmallows.”

She wasn’t talking about looking at the expiration date on the marshmallow bag, of course (!).  In this context, she was acknowledging that all choral pieces written and published can’t (and shouldn’t) be major works.  Or even have tremendous weight textually and musically.  There is clearly a need sometimes in large and small choirs’ repertoires for functional pieces that serve a variety of needs, some of which require the piece performed to be easy and/or quickly prepared.  Those who conduct church choirs know that inevitably there will be those “slim Sundays” when, for whatever reason…be it weather, time of year, or a flu epidemic that shrinks your ranks…the director is in need of music that’s effortlessly rehearsed and presented.  Plus, the busy time of preparation for an extended seasonal work often necessitates the need for some “sugarstick” anthems (as they’re sometimes called) that lighten the director and choir’s load.  That’s to say nothing of the fact that most church choirs in the United States are the average size of 15-20 voices (especially nowadays).  Those choirs are looking for “bread and butter” material that’s easily-prepared on a weekly basis (Sunday does come once a week, after all!), yet has a little “meat on the bones.”

Early in my publishing career, I realized that the so-called “pick-up” easy anthem book really meets those needs out there.  But I also remembered Alice Parker’s “good marshmallow” analogy, and how if you’re going to write or perform such a piece (that is, an anthem that is lightweight textually and musically), then it should be a good one.  Accordingly, whenever I’ve published a pick-up anthem book (and I’ve published several through the years), my goal has been to fill it with good marshmallows.  The latest such collection I’ve published is titled “More Sunday Savers” (built on a previously best-selling series).  You may click here to view a YouTube video of the digital reading session.

Let me hasten to add that I’m not suggesting a choir’s folder should be filled only with marshmallows, of course.  If we serve our choirs a diet only of easy anthems, no growth will take place and they won’t get the musical nourishment they need and desire.

But again, the need for this “music in an instant” is evident.  But what constitutes a solid choral anthem that’s easily prepared yet has some substance to it as well?  Here are my Top 5 Ingredients that constitute a good marshmallow:

1. Text. Textually, the anthem should say something in a theologically sound and fresh way, or use a timeless hymn text.
2. Tune. The melody (and supportive harmony) should be singable without a lot of disjunct or surprising twists and turns.
3. Vocal Scoring. The vocal scoring should follow traditional rules of voice leading.  But the easy anthem in particular should not contain any surprising or moderately challenging voice leading that will consume a lot of rehearsal time.
4. Length. The anthem shouldn’t be too long.  Otherwise, you risk spending too much valuable rehearsal time on one anthem.
5. Accompaniment. The accompaniment should be interesting, playable, and creative without being overly simplistic (and in a key that’s not full of chromaticism).

When you look at these criteria at a glance, it seems a no-brainer that these would be the requirements for an easy anthem. But I’ve found through the years to truly get all of these factors flowing together in a cohesive manner isn’t as easy as it looks.  There also needs to be that final, hard-to-put-your-finger-on ingredient that says “This anthem is fresh and my choir and congregation will enjoy and be uplifted by it.”  But when you do get all of these elements together, you’ve got a recipe for success when it comes to serving up good marshmallows to your crowd.  Some of today’s worship styles (in my humble opinion) often applaud and live on bad musical marshmallows (whether the participants realize it or not…since if that’s all they’re served, they don’t know the difference).  However, presenting solid choral anthems (even when time and resources may be short) that meet needs with well-crafted musicianship will help foster growing, vibrant choirs.  And vibrant choirs can often be the fuel to grow churches.  When blended with a balanced menu of more challenging selections, good marshmallows can supplement and create a wonderful choral worship experience.  They’ll be consumed pleasantly, with no bitter aftertaste – or guilt!

Mary McDonald is a multi-talented musician from Knoxville, Tennessee. In addition to her work as a composer, arranger, producer, pianist, and organist, she currently serves as the organist for Central Baptist Church in Knoxville. Her music and talents have blessed choirs and congregations across the country for more than twenty-five years.

Mary is the composer of more than 600 published choral anthems, several Christmas and Easter cantatas, and numerous keyboard collections. She is also active as a choral clinician, traveling throughout the United States conducting workshops and concertizing. Her unique blend of heart, hands, and humor, combined with a wide range of writing and performing styles, keep her in constant demand. One of Mary's greatest joys has been serving as accompanist for the Tennessee Men's Chorale since 1985. In 2000, Mary served as the first woman President of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference. She is currently on the board of the John Ness Beck Foundation and is a member of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Jubilate Music Group President/CEO Mark Cabaniss sat down with Mary to discuss her newest Christmas musical, Peace Has Come.

MC:  Welcome, Mary! Thank you for taking time out of your busy travel and writing schedule to speak with us today.

MM: It's my pleasure Mark!

MC: I remember the first Christmas musical of yours that I heard was way back in 1988 titled BEHOLD THE KING OF GLORY. Although I was already familiar with your writing by then, I remember how impressed I was with that musical. Was that your first ever musical?

MM: I had composed 2 cantatas prior to the 1988 release of BEHOLD THE KING OF GLORY; In 1984, "This Day of Celebration" was a collaborative work with John Purifoy and, in 1987, "The Dawn of Risen Glory" was also released through Purifoy Publishing.

MC: I remember those as well but didn’t know they preceded the 1988 work. Your new Christmas musical this year is PEACE HAS COME. We’re excited to be the publisher of it! I remember when we were first discussing the idea of basing the musical on the subject of peace, we both felt such a subject would be very timely, given the state of our world these days. What are your thoughts on the subject of “peace”?

MM: I was once asked for my favorite word and, after careful thought, responded with “peace.” It is something I constantly strive for in my own life – to find a quiet, calm escape from the busy, steady pace of a musician’s full agenda. For it is in that stillness where I find God - the Author and giver of true inner peace. Christmas has a way of settling us down and reminding of what really matters in life: family/children, Jesus, miracles, and the most sustaining gifts of joy, love, hope, and peace. Christ came to bring peace to the world, not as the world suggests but, rather, everlasting holiness and peace in the form of a baby - a King!

MC: Beautifully expressed. What about the content and musical styles in the work?

MM:  Throughout this musical, we acknowledge our need and yearning for Christ to come into the world. Varying styles, from classical to soulful sounds, provide a colorful pallet from which this endearing story is told. Well-known tunes and carols, joined by soloists, children and congregation, offer a pleasing familiarity and ease in the learning process. New tunes featuring lyrics by the gifted Rose Aspinall, along with beautiful narrative supplied by you weave together this significant story in a clear, powerful delivery. The orchestrations are by the very talented Ed Hogan. Careful attention has been given to the pacing of this work so that the story is clearly conveyed through narrative and song. An optional, final Reprise reminds us why we celebrate this special season of Christmas.

MC: The musical can be performed with the songs and narration only, or with drama. Please talk about the Drama Companion/Production Guide that is offered separately.

MM: This is an optional reproducible manual which includes a simple dramatization which weaves the songs together beautifully, and is very easy to produce with as few as 6 people, or many more. For those churches which may have never used drama with their Christmas musical in the past, this is an excellent one to start with. Plus, there are excellent staging, audition, production, and promotional tips and more also included in the manual.

MC: Thank you for creating PEACE HAS COME, Mary, with its timely and timeless message.

MM: It’s my joy, Mark, to have been involved in this project and my prayer is that it impacts lives significantly this year and for future years to come with the wonderful message of God’s peace.

Read Mary McDonald's bio here.

Browse Mary McDonald's publications here.