My Life Has a Soundtrack

Music has always been a big part of my life. My parents both sang in a country and western band, by dad was a multi-instrumentalist, and nearly all the branches of my family tree have a songbird nest on them somewhere. It was no wonder, then, that I should want to learn to play.

I started tinkering with a piano early on, but it never took hold. I dabbled around with the recorder and all those other instruments they introduce you to in grade school, then got interested in drums.

Drums don’t get you to reading music, though, at least not the kinds of music I wanted to read, so when band became an option at school in grade seven, I took to the trumpet. That was my primary instrument through college, although I also got some experience in a jazz band playing flügelhorn and in a drum and bugle corps playing a tenor bugle pitched in G.

In the early 1990s, I was introduced to handbells and instantly became enamoured with this most unique instrument. I directed a handbell team in Houston for 17 years before moving to Canada, where I played briefly in a church-based bell choir and then helped charter a community handbell society in Calgary.

Along the way, I taught myself to write arrangements of songs that I wanted to play, but couldn’t find the music for. Early on, those arrangements were for trumpet or brass ensemble, then later on I switched my focus to writing arrangements for vocal choirs and then handbells.

Here are some arrangements I currently have published under Hal Leonard’s “Arrange Me” setup.

Small handbell ensemble

“Let it Be Christmas” by Alan Jackson (12 bells, C5-G6) Level 2

“Spring By the Bow” original composition (12 bells + flute or recorder) Level 3

“Ukrainian Bell Carol” by Mykola Leontovich (12 bells, C5-G6) Level 3

“We Wish You a Merry Christmas” Traditional English Carol (12 bells, C5-G6) Level 2

Three octave handbell choir

“Carols of the Bells” by Jim Winslett (36 or 40 bells) Level 3

“Classical Gas” by Mason Williams (35 bells) Level 4+

“O Canada” by Calixa Levalée (27 bells) Level 2

“Twin Peaks Theme” by Angelo Badalmenti (21 bells) Level 2

Four octave handbell choir

“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Freddie Mercury (46 bells) Level 4

“Carol Anne’s Theme” (From “Poltergeist”) by Jerry Goldsmith (44 bells or 44 chimes + 24 bells) Level 3

“Hello” by Lionel Richie (47 bells + 8 hand chimes) Level 4

“Hey Jude” by John Lennon and Paul McCartney (38 bells) Level 3+

“Magic Carousel” (From “Rollercoaster”) by Lalo Schifrin (42 chimes or bells used) Level 3

“O Canada” by Calixa Levalée (30 bells) Level 2

“The Rainbow Connection” by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher (48 bells) Level 3

“Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye and Kimora (25 bells + 5 hand chimes) Level 2

“Tales From the Loop” by Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-morgan (24 bells) Level 3

“Watermark” by Enya and Roma Ryan (35 bells) Level 2+

Other instruments

“Carols of the Bells - for Brass!” by Jim Winslett (brass quintet)