Merry Christmas Bells

Because we know that many of you are always on the lookout for pieces you can use in your holiday programs with multiple performing groups, we do our best to give you options. "Merry Christmas Bells" is a great one! It gives you the flexibility to use just vocals or vocals with your choice of other players including handbells, jingle bells, Boomwhackers®, tone chimes, mallet instruments, Joia Tubes®, or anything else you can think of. All of the pitched "bell-like" possibilities are combined onto one staff labeled "Bells/BW" for ease of reading. The jingle bells notes and indications are notated above the vocal staff.

If any of the parts seem a bit too much, feel free to alter or adapt as needed. One such example is measure 14. There is an optional pattern indicated at the bottom of the page for this. Also, if playing more than one note at a time is a problem, pick just one. Do what works.

At the end of the song, we indicate an optional roll. The way to do this is have players play their own notes repeatedly for the duration of the notes so it comes off like one player "rolling." Similarly, the "applause" after the tune - which is also optional - can be created in the same way. Only this time, all notes can be used instead of just the ones in a chord. This gives players a chance to have a final release after working so hard to play their parts. Or it can just be a joyous union with the church bell sound effects on the recording.