Confusion about Martellato Lift and Echo Technique

[Christine Bastone]

Hi All,

 

I am excited to be playing with a local handbell choir for Christmas Eve!  :)

 

In the music we are playing...there are notations for Martellato, Martellato Lift and the Echo technique...which I had never seen before.

 

Now the choir I am playing with pretty much only plays for Christmas Eve and Easter...and I don't think they had ever seen them either.  The Director did have a printout from Handbellworld.com...but I was still confused.  So I looked up the website at home...and found the exact same printout. 

 

And while this made some things more clear...I'm still confused. 

 

The definition on the site for Martellato is:  "Martellato indicates the handbell is rung by holding it by the handle and gently striking the full body of the handbell horizontally on a properly padded table."    And for Martellato Lift is "indicates the martellato followed by immediately lifting the handbell to allow the sound to continue."  Now...keeping in mind that I didn't see the word "horizontal" until I looked at it closer at home...how do you allow the sound to continue after striking the table?  (When I tried to do it...the sound just stopped.)

 

And I'm even more confused about Echo...it's definition is:   "To perform the Echo technique, the handbells are rung on beat one and then lightly but precisely touched to the padded table on the counts indicated."   This sounds very interesting...but...again...how do I touch the table...and continue to have sound? 

 

Unfortunately I can't experiment with trying to do these techniques until practice tonight.   But any help on reducing my confusion...even if it is after tonight since I am so late in posting this...would be GREATLY appreciated!!  :)

 

Thank you,

Christine Bastone

Crick...@gmail.com

 

 

[Thomas Simpson]

Aren't there some videos on You Tube showing these techniques??

Check it out!

Thomas

--
Post: handb...@googlegroups.com
Subscribe: handbell-l...@googlegroups.com
Unsubscribe: handbell-l+...@googlegroups.com
Digest: e-mail mdp...@gmail.com with subject line "Digest-L"

[blanch...@cfl.rr.com]

These three techniques are great fun! And a little difficult to explain without the physical cues, but I'll give it a shot.

Martellato - the word "horizontal" is an important one in the description. You hold the bell parallel, just a few inches above, the table. When you then 'strike' the padded table, you get a pitched thunk sound.

Mart Lift - Starts like the Martellato, but you pull the bell immediately back out of the pad. So after the 'thunk',the bell then does ring out.

Echo - (One of my favorite techniques!) This technique works better with lower notes. You strike the bell in the air like a normal ring, but then you very gently & quickly touch the pad. If you ring on '1', and 'bounce' on '2' & '3', you get a type of 'wah wah' sound. If the bell is rather small, then the sound completely dies when you touch the pad, but the larger bells have enough mass that the sound continues through a few echoes.

Have fun!
Blanche Marie

[Silver Woodbury]

Hi, Christine!

 

Here is a verbal explanation of the difference between the martellato lift (or mart lift) and the echo techniques.  For the martellato lift, you thump the casting (metal part) of the bell on the table padding, causing it to sound, then immediately lift it off of the padding to allow the sound to persist (in constrast to a martellato where you keep the bell in contact with the padding to keep the sound staccato – short).  For the echo technique, ring the bell as you normally would, then touch the rim of the casting slightly to the pad and lift it back up, making a “whom” sound.  You can continue to touch and lift the bell as many times as the arranger indicates by the number of little hooked arrows in the music.  For example, if you ring a dotted half note followed by 2 echo arrows, you ring on beat one, touch and lift on beat 2, touch and lift on beat 3.  This technique again allows the bell to keep sounding.  If you touch the bell to the padding for too long, you will damp or partially damp the bell.  You’ll hear the difference.  I find it difficult for this technique to be effective on bells above about C6 because it is so easy to damp them.  For these bells, I suggest holding your pinky finger out to touch the pad before the bell so you avoid overdamping.  You may find that just doing the up and down motion with the beat without actually touching the pad for these smaller bells fits your needs.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Silver

Mrs. Silver D. Woodbury
Silverbell Enterprises
Regional Independent Sales Representative for Schulmerich Bells
Oklahoma - Kansas - Arkansas - Northern Texas
Authorized Dealer for Murphy Robes in Oklahoma
10012 Carnie Circle, Yukon, OK  73099
405-519-0331 mobile
888-735-5407 toll-free voice and fax
silve...@cox.net or SWoo...@SchulmerichBells.com

---

--

[Christine Bastone]

THANK YOU so much for all of your VERY quick replies!!   I had a LOT more success tonight!

 

I had actually thought of YouTube...but I didn't really find anything helpful.  However my director did...so I must have missed something.

 

But thank you again...you guys are AWESOME!  *big smile*

 

[Michele Sharik]

Blatant ad: May I also suggest my DVD "Handbell Techniques with Michèle Sharik"? It's available from Jeffers, Heitz, Above the Line, or HandbellMusic.com

Also: I'll be teaching all the stuff in that video AND MORE at the Guild's Master Series in tucson in january. Hope to see some of y'all there!

-Michèle

Sent from my iPhone

[TimR]

Let me ask a technical question about the echo.

Here's what I think happens, but I could be wrong.

As we know, a bell rings at two frequencies, the fundamental and the
12th; and the sound comes from two spots, the rim and the flare-out.

Damping the rim gently stops that pitch only, but the bell is still
vibrating, and it spreads back to the rim, so you can repeat it.
Damping too hard stops both pitches and the sound is gone. The
smaller bells go further into the cushion and it is harder to stop
just one pitch.

Like I said, that's what i think, but I've never talked to anybody who
knew. It does explain why you get that whomp effect, and how to avoid
it.

[Michele Sharik]

I haven't checked with an acoustician or with a oscilloscope, but my subjective experience is that a "whomp" is actually an increase in volume of the higher overtones when a bass bell is brought close to a surface.

Try this: cup your hands over your ears and slowly pull them away & back to your ears. When your hands are close to your ears, the higher overtones of the sounds around you are louder. This is most noticeable when your hands are within about 2 inches from your ears.

An acoustic engineers out there care to chime in?

-Michèle -- FOR SCIENCE!

Sent from my iPhone

[TimR]

On Dec 14, 9:32 pm, Michele Sharik <mich...@thegoldendance.com> wrote:
> I haven't checked with an acoustician or with a oscilloscope, but my subjective experience is that a "whomp" is actually an increase in volume of the higher overtones when a bass bell is brought close to a surface.
>
> Try this: cup your hands over your ears and slowly pull them away & back to your ears. When your hands are close to your ears, the higher overtones of the sounds around you are louder. This is most noticeable when your hands are within about 2 inches from your ears.
>
> An acoustic engineers out there care to chime in?
>
> -Michèle -- FOR SCIENCE!
>

That seems unlikely to me. I think the perceived increase is actually
a decrease of the other frequencies.

Your hands are probably acting as a high pass filter - removing lower
frequencies rather than increasing higher ones.

I will try to record a few whomps and see if I can get a spectrum out
of it, but it will take a few days. I don't have bells at home and
this week all my evenings are full with various Christmas
rehearsals.

But no, I'm not an acoustical engineer, just a mechanical engineer.

[Michele Sharik]

Excellent! The HPF Theory makes sense. I look forward to your report! :-)

-M

Sent from my iPhone