Wednesday evenings are for handbell practice. This is why I don’t do anything on Wednesday, unless it’s some kind of big event. That’s not important. What’s important is how a handbell group works. Every member of the handbell choir plays only a few bells. If someone is missing, so are their notes. In theory, this is a bad thing, but there are some times when a missing note won’t be missed at all. If the audience doesn’t know the tune, or the bells that are missing are not part of the melody, it’s really hard to tell something is wrong. I remember when I first joined the group, my attention span would short out and I’d “go to the bathroom.” Often before I came back, I would listen to everyone else practice. It was beautiful, and I usually couldn’t really tell something was missing unless I strained to remember my part. I play by ear, and I find it very hard to read the music while I play, so it worked out for me hearing what the music should be like. Tonight, I looked at the music (with highlighters and colored pens marring the black and white landscape) and had a strange thought.
Isn’t life like playing music in a handbell group?
It’s not as if we don’t affect others as we go along. People work together though life, weaving in and out of each others’ existence. Sometimes it feels like we were supposed to be somewhere, and end up being a missed note. Mistakes and bad decisions translate as a wrong note. Some people carry those around them through everything, the big base notes that thrum through the whole piece and keep the ensemble together. Some people are beautiful, soaring about the rest and impossible to miss, the very high bells. Things change, the way the world works change, just as different techniques are used in different pieces. Everyone is on a different level, and nobody does the same thing even if they play at the same time.
I think it probably sounded a lot “deeper” and awesome when it popped into my head. Of course, that was when I was busily screwing up pretty much every note I tried to play and getting rather frustrated. It also makes me wonder how the wandering off and not playing for a while fits into my elaborate metaphor…
Handbells don't function alone, but there's a problem if one doesn't play. Usually, anyway. Just like real life.
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