Hand bell choir for adults being added at St. Vincent's

Courtesy photo/Scott Larrabee

+ Enlarge

The St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School sixth-grade hand bell choir practices for an upcoming performance.

SALT LAKE CITY — St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School’s sixth-grade hand bell choir has a 17-year history of performing at school and parish Masses, along with community events. Now, Music Director Scott Larrabee wants to share that opportunity with adults.

“This is another outlet for people to glorify God through music,” he said. It’s a good fit for those who do not feel like they have a good voice, who are intimidated to sing in a choir or are fearful of being noticed if they make a mistake, he added. “It’s a way to participate in a way that is safe.”

A small adult hand bell choir, comprised of a few parish choir members and other interested people, already offers a limited number of pieces at some Sunday 11:30 a.m. Masses. Larrabee would like to expand this; 10 to 15 adults would be ideal, he said.

The ability to read music isn’t required to play the hand bell, Larrabee said, because he has developed a simple method of writing in the counts. All of the bells are also marked with color coding.

“It enables you to be able to be playing fairly complicated pieces of music without actually being able to read music,” he said. “The arrangements are such that if I have a small class, I can make it work and if I have a large class, I can make it work.”

The choir has a five-octave set of about 20 bells that Larrabee would like to see used more frequently. Bells range from golf-ball size to basketball-sized, so there are bells for every arm strength, he said. “It doesn’t take a whole lot to play some of the higher (smaller-sized) bells.”

Once the handbell choir has enough participants, it will practice for about 30 minutes each Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. Initially they will perform one piece monthly at an 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass. In the future, the adult choir may combine with the sixth-grade choir to perform.

“At the beginning I’m going to keep it very simple,” Larrabee said.

If interested in participating in the hand bell choir, contact Larrabee at 801-527-2056 or slarrabee@stvincents-school.org.