I’ve come from a long family history of musicians. My maternal grandmother was a professional violinist, piano teacher, and church music director for Southern Baptists in Arkansas. My mother was a keyboardist and organist in the church where I grew up. My father was a bass singer and sang in church and Kiwanis choirs.

L to R – grandmother on violin, portrait of great grandmother, and mother on piano

I began studying piano at age 8 or 9 and sang in choirs in church and school and community choruses, under the batons of some famous conductors.
I’ve attended and ushered at hundreds of concerts and I’ve heard some amazing performers and artists play some sublime music in some spectacular venues. I even sang in the USCB chamber singers on a two-month concert tour through Asia when in college. Classical music is always playing on my radio when I’m at home.

But when I discovered handbells, I fell in love, permanently and with both feet. I saw them played at church when I moved to Ojai, immediately took a four-week summer “get acquainted” class and was HOOKED.

R to L – Jill, sister Rebecca Doll and brother Jack Herring

I joined my church bell choir in mid-1980s, attended seminars all over California, learning all I could from great clinicians, including such greats as the late legend Donald Allured, Christine Anderson, Martha Wall, the late Wilbur Skeels, and Bill and Lee Waggoner. Their enthusiasm and joy for bells was contagious to me then and has lasted and grown over the years. When our church choir director moved on, I became the bell choir director for many years. Then, as ringers aged or moved away, our group dwindled in size, and because another local church had a similar problem, our two groups joined together to keep ringing. I even marched in the first ever Marching Handbell Choir in the 1988 Pasadena Rose Parade. All 5 plus miles of it!

I enjoy large ensemble ringing, usually groups of 10 or 11, but I prefer the challenges of small groups—duos or trios—and solo ringing with piano accompaniment. The larger groups typically assign a ringer to a ‘position’ where they ring usually 2 principal bells and any accidentals, sharps or flats, called for in the music. In smaller ensembles, a ringer plays a ‘part’ or a line, such as the alto part in a hymn. This requires a different technique in picking bells up and putting them down and sometimes moving around the bell tables.

Hallelujah Handbell Group

The variety of sounds achieved on bells using various techniques adds flavor and visual interest to a performance. The tone of bigger bells or chimes is soul-soothing, never tiring. The vibrations and overtones of each bell seem to both come from the ringer and return back to them, too. I feel more physically connected to the bell ringing than to piano playing.

Our small local church group had to disband during the pandemic lockdown, and since several members were elderly, fragile in health, moved away, or died, we had not resumed ringing. I missed it and wanted to challenge myself to learn some new skills, techniques, and style. So last summer, after a pandemic hiatus, I decided to resume ringing and began private mentoring lessons from a friend in Los Angeles whom I met during the preparation for the Rose Parade march.

There was one piece in particular I wanted to learn, so, at 75, I began driving into Los Angeles about twice a month. I worked on Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze” as well as a Christmas trio which I rang in a 12th Night concert at my mentor’s church. I also wanted to learn another part of a trio I played in June 2009. My mentor, musician extraordinaire, Boude Moore, Music Director and organist at Prince of Peace Episcopal Church, Woodland Hills –– check out their bell music on YouTube –– is teaching me a more legato “watercolor” style, the four-in-hand technique (actually two bells in each hand, playing independently), and better small ensemble ringing.

Jill Helson

I am acquiring new skills and confidence, and at age 77, I’m teaching my senior brain new pathways. My lessons are invigorating and energizing and are reigniting my hope to form a bell group in Ojai once again. Through these lessons, and performances, I’ve realized I don’t have to give up doing the things I enjoy just because opportunities dry up. And my rusty senior brain can still learn new tricks.