After church this morning, I invited anyone interested to come and play with the chimes. I am putting together a simple chord ringing for Thanksgiving Sunday (before the holiday) and then hope to do some Christmas selections. But I want this first experience to be fun and easy to do. So just chords, and in fact just the root note of each chord.
Quite a few people showed up, and a number of others told me they couldn't stay this week but would be back next week if that was OK. And it was. I made it as simple as I could. We took a few minutes to examine how a chime vibrates, which part gives the most sound and should be facing the congregation, how to damp the sound. We practiced our bicycle motion, flicking our wrists to ring, the follow through.
Then we walked through who rings when, and tried it out. After a few passes, they had it! So I sat at the piano and played the accompaniment. They asked to do it again and again. They were so pleased that they could do it! They got bold and switched chimes and tried it again. One more time. Let's do it one more time. How about another time? Can we do it just once more?
It was delightful to see their joy and enthusiasm as they repeated the familiar hymn, ringing the chords as I played and sang. They were having such a good time - what a precious thing it is to find music fun! After a whole hour (we were just supposed to do 20 minutes) I finally called it quits. They would have kept going for a few more rounds at least!
What a great smile to carry with me this week. We Gather Together. It will be a good Thanksgiving Sunday. There is joy building already. Wait until I add the flutes and oboe! I might even scare up a trumpet - praise can be such joy.
I think I am beginning to understand Kayleen a bit better. When you can do nothing else, praise. Its pretty powerful.
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