Assignments

It seems few matters in the world of handbells rile people up more than the question of "what's the best way to assign X number of bells to Y number of people." I strongly believe that there is no single best way to distribute bells; the approach taken by any group will depend on the strengths and weaknesses of the individual ringers in the group, not to mention the demands of the music being played. Nevertheless, I offer here a few of the suggestions made on the Handbell-L, for both "basic" assignments and variations thereon.

Traditional Assignments

In all charts below the assumption is that accidentals stay with their associated diatonic

Donna Kousaie, Tim McDonough and I each offer an assignment scheme for a three-octave group:

No one seems to have posted a scheme for a four-octave group, but I'd guess a couple possibilities, depending on the number of ringers, would be something like this:

Various schemes for five-octave groups have been presented, from Rusty Sanders, me, Cathy Moklebust, and Stephanie Wiltse.

Then there are six-octave groups, for which one assignment scheme has been offered by Julie Sigler, one by Paul W. Allen, and two by Stephanie Wiltse.

There is even one baseline suggestion for a seven-octave group, offered by Sherry Graham of the Raleigh Ringers.

Finally, just because I can, I'll offer a couple strategies for truly huge ensembles--one for eight octaves, one for nine. (These are what we use at Bayview.)

Interestingly, for the most part all of the above schemes use the same basic idea for the battery (loosely, E4-B5).

Variations

A key concept here is that all of the above schemes are starting points. Bells can and should be moved from their positions if doing so will enhance the playability and musicality of the end product. A few suggestions on good ways to reassign bells follow. For the most part, they concern the extremes of the table, where the concentration of bells to ringers is higher.

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The Ivey Method

A couple people, including Nancy Wencek, Donna Kousaie, and Delaine Terpening, wrote saying that they were familiar with a bell-assignment method used by Bob Ivey for his choirs. The most distinctive thing about this method is the so-called "split A" position. Nancy describes the assignment like this:

Although the typical bell postions have been discussed,
the split A assignment for postion 7 hasn't.  Some people,
Bob Ivey included, use the traditional bell assignments
from 1-6.  Here's the funky part...

#7 's major bells are A5, A6, & A7 and any accidentals
which are impossible for another ringer to get due to their
own major bells.  This postion is therefore coveted by some
(oink, oink), and absolutely avoided by others.
#8 has as their major bells B5 & C6.
#9 has as their major bells D6 &E6
#10 has as their major bells F6 & G6
#11 has as their major bells B6 & C7

Donna also points out that this method works merging ringers 8 and 11, making one position B5/6 C6/7. Delaine added the further wrinkle in showing that her part is B5/6/7 C6/7/8, plus accidentals.

The advantage of the Ivey method is that you have one ringer, on the A position, who is immediately available for all the accidentals that others in the group cannot get. Essentially, a built-in extra hand.

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The Hilty Method

I have absolutely no experience with this method, used most extensively in the choirs of Colorado University. There is a lengthy description of the theory and practice behind the method at http://www.ringem.org/misc/groups/cubells/Hilty_bell_assignment.html, so I will not attempt to duplicate the effort. The basic thrust of the method, though, is to assign bells in minor ninths (octave plus half-step) throughout the set, so that no position has too many bells in any given stacked chord or run.

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Other Variations

Outside of the permanent positions as described above, there are some other minor variations in assigning bells which can be useful, especially in the bass.

Alan Parker describes one way of getting through the hellish bass runs in the Griffin Passacaglia:

A solution that I have used before on this piece is to make these assignments in fourths. 1) C3,F3,B3 2) D3,G3,C4 3) E3,A3,D4. With this assignment no one has 3 consecutive notes in the sixteenth runs or more than 2 notes in any given chord. There may be one or two spots to work out, but it makes things feasible. It should also help to spread out the weight of the bells a little bit too.

Bass ringer 1 (on left):  D3, F3, A#/Bb3, B3 
Shared: (D#/Eb3)
Bass ringer 2 (on right): Eb3, E3, G3, A3
Give away: F#3, G#Ab3

A typical assignment might have me ringing C3, C#3, D3, E flat3, G3, A flat3 and A3. Brian might have the Fs and Bs along with his C and D.

At Area XII in June, I saw a slightly different variation--same basic assignment for bass, but alternating notes--bottom ringer C3,E3,G3, next ringer up D3,F3,A3,B3 I think. Kinda neat. Most of our music works well this way, as few pieces have much in the way of runs in the bass.

Our table looks like this (* denotes shared bells):

      Bb2     G2     Ab3*    Bb3*    A2     Db4     Eb3   F#3
  C3      D3      G3       A3*    B3*     C4       E3     F3      D4* 

(If you're actually paying attention to this ;-) the reason Ab2 and B2 are missing from this picture is because we don't have them. And we gave the Db3 away to the E4-F4 ringer because it only occurs once.)

Steve Johnson says: "Arnold Sherman pointed out a great way of assigning the 3s that I hadn't ever considered before: assign the 1st position the Cs, Es, and As, and the 2nd position the Ds, Fs, and Gs, allowing the two to figure out who gets the Bs when necessary."

In Albuquerque, I was going through the same question about assigning the bass octave. Sue Southwick, in her class on same, suggested Ringer 1 gets C,F,A and Ringer 2 gets D,G,B, with the E's up for grabs. I think the B's ring more often than the E's, so this leaves fewer "orphan" notes, I would guess. My bass ringers usually end up with one taking Eb and one taking E. I try to avoid having one person swinging Eb and Bb at the same time for a long period of time!

Distribution of talent

GREAT-GREAT				       GREAT-GREAT
 	   \				      /
 	    GOOD-GOOD			  GOOD
 		     \			 /
 		      WEAK-WEAK-WEAK-WEAK

 
AWESOME-AWESOME                                                       AWESOME-AWESOME
               \                                                     /
                FANTASTIC-FANTASTIC                         FANTASTIC
                                   \                       /
                                    GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT

GREAT-GREAT                                 GREAT-GREAT
           \				   /
	    GOOD      GOOD      GOOD      /
	        \    /    \    /    \    /
	         FAIR      FAIR      FAIR

Norm Heitz passes along some excellent advice on where to put a ringer with a good sense of rhythm:

I learned from John Furguson at Saint Olaf College that you must put your best ringer (the one with rhythm) on the *second* note, say in an arpeggio, or the second beat of a simple rhythm. for Carol of the Bells, however, the and of two is the killer. Try giving the E flat to the best ringer. The E flat is essentially ringing in 2 against 3. The ringer of the and of two (2+) is controlling the tempo here. If the 2+ is early, the tempo will rush. If it is late, the tempo drags. 2+ in this piece is far more important than beat 3.

Stephanie Wiltse notices that:

the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale are the least busy parts. So, if you are ringing in the key of C, the A and B position may be able to handle the extra bell.

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Katssigning

Campanile uses an assignment scheme (dreamed up by their charter member Katryn, hence the term "Katssigning") wherein absolutely no attempt is made to keep the assignments in chromatic order, or even in octaves. A single ringer may be ringing in the 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and 7s all in a single piece! In general, Kat tries to keep the music divided into three parts (melody, harmony, descant) and assigns bells according to how those three parts move through the set of bells.

The following is quoted (with permission; thanks guys!) from Campanile's "Workshop Notes", which in general is chock-full of good tips (including many which, I notice on further examination, are repeated elsewhere in this array of pages. Oh well, great minds....). Buy this book! For more information on the book or Campanile in general, check out their website.

The most important things to remember about assigning are: Make sure that the assignments are challenging, but musically playable. Make sure that nobody gets bored!

This alternative method ofor assigning pieces for 6 ringers is laid out step by step below. You can use this method for assigning for more ringers as well, or perhaps for allowing your group to play an octave more than they thought they could.

Step by Step Alternative Assigning

1. Go through the entire piece and check the range of bells. Write down all of the bells used either by name or drawn onto a staff. (On most music published for bells, there is a "Bells Used" staff, so they've done this for you.)
   Notice which bells play regularly througout the piece and which ones only play a few times.
2. Give the lowest bell that plays frequently to the bottom person (#1). Give the highest bells that play frequently to the highest person (#6). This keeps the low ringers and the highest happy and busy, even if it leaves holes in chromatics.
3. Try to assign chromatic 4-in-hands from C5 up. Start with the highest ringer and work your way towards the middle. If it is a low piece, you may need to assign as low as G4 for 4-in-hand.
4. Work up from the bottom making sure that each ringer has at least 2 bells that play often. Leave out accidentals or odd bells that only play once or twice. Keep in mind that you can't play three low bells in quick succession in a musical fashion. Spread them out between your low ringers.
5. Now you need to do the fine tuning. You may not have met in the middle with the optimum assignment for each person. So you have the option of completely starting over (yuck!) or adjusting each assignment. You may need to:
   1. Limit the 4-in-hands to two or three main bells apiece above C5 if the piece doesn't have very many bells. Or make the 4-in-hands go down further if you end up having more bells than you thought.
   2. Rethink the top and bottom ends. Maybe you could have the top end begin with higher bells and move the 4-in-hands up.
   3. There may be a particular passage where 4-in-hands won't work (ie quick repeated notes). Take care to make the assignments realistic and musical.
6. Add in the accidentals and left-over bells. This may necessitate juggling some the main bells between ringer, but usually you can find a bass ringer who is standing around falling asleep during a difficult treble passage, or vice versa for the treble ringers. So give C3 to ringer #6 or A7 to ringer #1. Live dangerously!
   • In cases where trebles have only 2 or 3 main bells, add the accidentals closest to their associated bells to make a chromatic 4-in-hand assignment.
   • Add bass accidentals closest to their main note (ie add A#4 to either the A4 or B4 ringer) unless it will make a consecutive passage unplayable.
7. Be aware of cross-over bells. (Bells that can be found in either the bass or treble clef. Usually it is between A4 and E5.) Try to keep them within one or two assignments.

Know Your Players

Now comes the time when you need to assign a name to each position. You need to keep in mind their strengths and weaknesses (split assignment reading (assingments with both treble and bass bells, or assignments that go back and forth between staves), ability to play 4-in-hands, physical strength, whether they are more comfortable reading either in bass or treble).

Now, you don't need to always give them exactly what they are used to, either. Try to challenge a bass ringer by giving them a treble assignment that isn't too difficult. Or improve the strength of one of your lighter weight ringers by asking them to play a low bell in their assignment, or even by giving them an assignment in the 4s.

Checking your work

After you finish assigning, go through and play each assignment in your head to make sure that you didn't give someone something impossible, or that someone isn't going to be standing around counting ceiling tiles for 30 measures. An interested ringer is an attentive (and sometimes even quiet!) ringer.

Consider asking your ringers to change positions from piece to piece. Allowing your ringers to move around behind the tables keeps them much more interested, allows them to grow more musically by testing their limits, and is just plain more fun! So, break some of your old habits and try a piece using alternative assigning. Have fun!

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