The Bell Chimes

[carrie horgan]

A pretty little tune - this is the Herbert J Ellis version (but with the Dobson intro).  Hope you like this one, Ian (our resident Bell Ringer)

https://soundcloud.com/banjopickingal-1/the-bell-chimes

Edit by Ian:

I have added a Music player for Carrie's recording.

Very nice indeed Carrie, and a nice sounding banjo too. You sound better than my Handbell Ringing Team does!

BELL CHIMES played by Carrie Horgan

[Joel Hooks]

Great job Carrie.

As I posted on the BHO, here is me doing the swinging bit at the end.

It was the first time I had done the bit live and I was a little nervous.

[carrie horgan]

That's great Joel - I'm going to move the furniture out the way and give that a try!

[Richard William Ineson]

Very impressive.

[Joel Hooks]

So, a little bit of background on the "Bell Chimes."

This was a common minstrel era show piece.  I have acquired many arrangements of this and have developed a theory.

Working up the arrangement that I use (a bit of this and that) I found a book for clock makers that has notation for the major famous bell towers.  Many of these are gone today or have had the bells replaced/ reworked.  As these were a fixture of life, a great way to win an audience would be by imitation of their clock tower.

Due to the volume of these one could presume that a banjoists would have a idea of most clock chimes and could cull at will.

For fun check out FBC's version in his Analytical Banjo Method using two banjos tuned differently.  I played with it for a short time and started to get the hang of it but did not work it up all the way.

[Jody Stecher]

Wait a moment….back up there…..is that two banjos played by one person?!?

[Joel Hooks]

Yep, one in each hand.  Converse played it for the Queen of England.

[thereallyniceman]

Looks easy to me!

;-)

That was an amazing performance Joel. I am astonished.

[Steve Harrison]

If you really want to impress, have you ever thought of trying it standing up in a hammock?