Easter songs

I had a mini panic attack when I realized Easter is the end of March. Then I had a major panic attack when I realized I only have 3 more Sundays to practice our songs to sing in Sacrament meeting. (In Utah county, we will miss one Sunday for the Provo City Center Temple dedication). I've calmed down considerably now that I know what songs we're doing and I've got everything prepared. We are doing 'Hosanna' CS page 66 and 'Jesus Has Risen' CS page 70. Both songs are short, repetitive, and very easy.

I'm going to teach the descant for 'Hosanna' to my oldest girl class. It's really easy and I've got great singer in there. They LOVE doing harmony and descants. I'll go into there class the last 5 minutes and work on it. They have very helpful teachers that can help them too.

Then we are going to use the handbells on 'Jesus Has Risen'. The introduction goes really well with the bells to sound like chimes.

Here's the chart I made:

It does go higher than the normal set of 8 handbells to a high D and there is an A# (Bb).

I also made a flip chart to teach everyone the words.

I LOVE to share!!!

Click HERE to download the words for the chart.

Click HERE to download the bell symbols.

Click HERE to download the flip chart.

Handbells

Look what came in the mail the other day!

I bought the 13 Note Chromatic set from Amazon.com

Click on the picture above for a direct link to Amazon.com

My grandkids and I have had a blast playing with them.

I'm using them for the Primary to sing in Sacrament Meeting. We are doing the song: Christmas Bells. Because this is their first time using bells I decided to do chords with the bells instead of the melody. It's much easier. Plus, my Primary already knows this song well.

If you look at the song in the Children's Song book there are chord markings.

In this song there are only 3 different chords: G, D7, C. They are played 11 times during the song.

Next I looked up the notes that are in those 3 chords. I found I had 8 different notes:

A, B, middle C, D, E, F#, G, treble C.

Here is a handy chart for finding the notes in chords. There is also one in the Children's Songbook.

Click HERE for a download.

If this is confusing, just ask your pianist for help. He/She should know how to find the notes in a chord.

Next, I made a chart with the words and chords.

Click HERE for a download of the note labels I used on the chart.

I printed a sheet of each and placed in a file for future use with other songs.

Click HERE for the words to the song.

I underlined the words in the song when the bells are rung so the kids would know when to play. 

We got permission from the Bishop to do this but he was a little worried about reverence because I'm having my 10 & 11 year old boys do it. My older girls are going to be singing the descant. So we had a very nice discussion about reverence in Sacrament meeting, the proper way to play the instrument, a little history about the instrument, and how the Mormon Tab. Choir uses them. I am also hand picking my 8 boys that will be playing the bells.

Last Sunday, I introduced the bells to my Sr. Primary. As we practiced the song and descant, I rotated the bells so every child got a chance to play them. They LOVED it and were very well behaved. It was simple, fun, and sounded great!

HAPPY RINGING!!