The singing bells

Say "handbells" and people usually think of Salvation Army volunteers ringing away while collecting Christmas donations.

Lee Skoda, a ringer with the Mele Mai Paki Lima Community Handbell Choir, said making music with handbells is a lot more complex than that.

"It’s not just going ‘ding, ding, ding’ like the Salvation Army," she said. "It’s totally different. These bells are all tuned; each bell is a different note on a staff of music.

"There’s something weirdly addicting to playing handbells. You’re only playing two notes rather than playing the entire piece of music. Maybe it’s the idea that you play your two notes, and everybody else’s two notes come together and make this beautiful chorus. So I think that it’s kind of magical," said Skoda, who began ringing in 2004 at Aiea United Methodist Church.

The bells aren’t limited to church music and Christmas carols, as many people may think, she said.

Mele Mai Paki Lima, which means "music from plenty hands," was founded in 2007 by Karen and Dan Carlisle, who take turns conducting and playing everything from Disney to classical music, with pop tunes and movie themes in between.

The group will show off its versatility with a free concert at 6 p.m. Sunday at Aiea United Methodist Church, 99-101 Lau­lima St.

Karen Carlisle said Christmas is its busiest season, but the group is willing to play free of charge throughout the year at public and private events: "We love playing concerts!" Email her at kdingaling@hawaiihandbells.com.

"Handbells are a hidden art here in Hawaii," she said, as a good portion of their audiences has never heard of playing songs with these instruments. Most of the approximately 17 handbell choirs in the state are on Oahu and in churches, she estimated.

Carlisle has directed the handbell choir at Kailua United Methodist since 1999, and a year later added Aiea UMC, joined by her husband. Last fall she began directing at Harris UMC and recently started a children’s community choir.

The couple came from California, where bell ringing is huge and conventions and workshops are held, she said. Mele Mai is a member of the international Handbell Musicians of America, and Carlisle is the regional representative of the Hawaii and Guam area.

"I’ve been ringing for 36 years and directing for 20 years. I started in my sixth-grade church choir in California, and I just loved it. It’s a passion for music making, and it’s just so different from playing the piano or any other instrument. There’s so much versatility. Once people play, they’re hooked," Carlisle said.

Mele Mai is an advanced-level choir of 13 men and women who collectively play a five-octave set of 61 bells, with the largest bell hitting a C3 note, and the smallest, a C8. They also play a five-octave set of hand chimes, both sets made by Malmark, she said. Most of the members have played other musical instruments.

The musicians stand in a row on two levels, behind tables padded with three inches of foam on which to rest their bells. Their black logoed T-shirts match their black gloves, which were originally used to protect the bronze bells or leather handles from body oils. But with the evolution of materials and thinking, now the gloves are more for protecting their hands, Carlisle said. Though the largest bells are made of aluminum and weigh a bit more than 5 pounds, even the smaller bells dig into fingers and cause blisters, she said.

Also hard on the hands is the rapid, repetitive grasping of various bells, and using percussive soft mallets on them to create certain sound effects. Often a ringer has to grab two small bells in each hand to play. At the same time, it’s good exercise because the left and right hands are often making different motions, and this challenges both sides of the body and brain, which clinicians regard as beneficial to one’s health, Carlisle said.

Jody White, a founding member of Mele Mai who also plays in the Aiea UMC choir, described one of a variety of techniques used that involves running a wooden dowel around the rim of the bell, called "the singing bell."

"It’s similar to the concept of wetting your finger and rubbing it on a champagne glass rim," she said. In another technique, called a "martellato," the ringer gently pounds the bell into the soft table to make a bouncing sound, she added.

A lot of finesse is involved in bringing out the best tone. Just making the bell peal isn’t a matter of waving it back and forth. The ringer makes deliberate circular motions in the air as if giving a toast, with the bell as a drinking glass.

"The thing I like is that it’s a visual art, it’s not just the music that you hear. At handbell concerts you see and you hear, and it’s all pretty," White said.

"I like the challenge of learning how to ring more pieces," said White, a bell ringer since 1991 in New Jersey, adding that the arrangements for such a large choir are "very difficult." Unlike a piano player who has control over every note, "we don’t know from moment to moment if everyone is going to grab their bell and if that song is going to come out just right. But it does with accomplished players, and that’s magical."

Skoda added that she has experienced many "chicken-skin moments when the music speaks to you."