My long life dream has come true in ringing a churchbell

For many long years, I've always wanted to ring a churchbell, as it's sweet melodies and songs have brought me joy and comfort  and peace of mind. Well,  that dream had finally come true. Thanks to a church I went to. When she called me on the phone, I had asked the Pastor  for her permission to ring the churchbell, and had gotten her ok to do it. So as nervous as I was, I went to the church on Sunday morning right before their 9 a.m. service. Then I had asked for one of their ushers, who was a very nice gentleman,. I had informed him that the pastor had given me the ok to ring the churchbell to call for worship. After discussing it, he had showed me where their churchbell was. Their chuchbell is 100 years old and is still rung the traditional way of pulling the rope.  I had also asked for the Usher to take my picture of me ringing the bell as a momentous memory for me. The time came, I grab hold of the rope, and began pulling it. The Churchbell began ringing it sweet melody sound "Bong, Bong" It was a dream come true.. The usher instructed me to ring the chuchbell 10 times or 10 bongs. Which was plenty for me. And overall the whole thing was a dream that finally came true, and it was a wonderous experience to last a lifetime.

got the cds from Larry Woodlee

I had received the Cd copies of the record Lew Charles in Chimes at Dusk. Since the record is out of print, what Mr. Woodlee had done was transferred the record onto Cd. These days who has a record player? Well I'm sure we do in the basement somewhere, but I'm too lazy to get it. Anyway, surprisingly the Cd's themselves didn't play onto my pc. I guess that my pc was just picky and didn't play that particular brand Sony Cd-R. I did however manage to play it on my DVD/VCR recorder and it sounded just beautiful. I believe that those chimes are Mass Chimes, but they sound just like amplified old church chimes. Either way, I've very happy about it. Oh yeah, I had then decided to make a digital recording of the music as It played onto a portable digital recorder, so I can transfer it to my Ipod and play it. Cd's are good, but they easily get scratched and ruined. So now I have a digital copy of Lew Charles Chimes at Dusk

Churchbells on Radio

I was listening to Family Radio and at about 11:00 pm, I started to hear this harmonious sound of churchbell music that really woke me up. Was I dreaming, had I died and gone to heaven, it was that beautiful. I just had to know more info about it. So I had decided to call up Family Radio and ask about it. Normally I would get nervous as whenever I had asked a  church about their bells, they would angrily turn me down and or tell me "Your not supposed to ask that!" Anyway, I was lucky, as I was transferred to the programming department for assistance.  The lady was very nice, and managed to play back some of the churchbell music I heard. Well, I then asked her if she knew the name of the song and record that was from, figuring that I can get it on CD. She then tells me that it's from an out of print record made in the 1950's called "Word" and the title of the record is "Chimes At Dusk" By Lew Charles.
       I had thanked her and went on a massive search on the internet for the record. So far, I found 1 copy of the lp record version sold on Amazon. Most other record websites that sold the out of print and hard to find records had the record itself for $5.99 or something. But It's alot of work as I wanted to get it onto CD. So I found one company called Vinyl Therapy that sold out of print records and I had e-mailed them to see if they had it.  I got a reply from a guy named Mr. Larry Woodlee who told me that he had the record and can make a copy of it onto CD for a small fee of about $12 and I wanted 2 copies. It had costed me $25 to get 2 copies of the cd of the record sent to me, but I haven't gotten it yet. But I'm very excited about it. Just from what I remember hearing on the radio, would  really make me happy in hearing all the other bell songs as well. Amazing what you can do with a little info and searching for what you want. You never know what you  can find. You can contact Mr. Larry for further info on this record at vinylrehab@mindspring.com.

Emile Berliner's 1899 record of Cantebury Chimes

On a search on Youtube, I came across a video that plays a record from 1899 of Emile Berliner's recordings of the Cantebury Chimes. It sounds so beautiful and nostalgic, as it brings about alot of memories for me. At times I felt sad upon listening to the music, as it made me think of the old churchbells that had once rang at noon, and had gone silenced, or maybe some personal strifes and struggles that I had gone through. I do love the music and sound of chimes, and bells. Maybe John would play those songs on his chimes as heard from the record, since the original recording is over 100 years old.  Wow the chimes really do ring out.

What happened to the churchbells

It's a big loss to me when churches no longer ring their bells or they have been silenced. I always looked forward to hearing those bells in the afternoon, as their songs had brought about a feeling of hope, peace and joy from a hectic and harsh day. Sure  most churches now have devices and systems that play those pre-recorded churchbell music, or it's automatically rung, but no matter how they get rung, it's great to hear their sweet melodies. But, allot of things have changed within our neighboorhoods. Well, because of tough financial times, various churches had problems paying their rent and or morgages, and coudn't keep up with their costs of running their churches. So the best thing they decided to do was to sell their church and property in an attempt to make some money. As a result, the people who bought those churches had been Yale Korean people, and had transformed those churches to a Yale Korean place of worship. Now that is a change, but as a result, the Yale Koreans don't use bells within their worship services, and thusly if the church had once played churchbells, they become silenced or turned off permanently. Mostly they would still have the large megaphones mounted on the rooftops of the church, but the bells will no longer be heard.
Some people might feel relieved as they consider the bells to be disturbing, loud, and disruptive.
                It's really not so bad , as they would only play once a day just before noon and go on for about 10-15 minutes. Sure other places that have more churches probably play their bells more often, but that's another story. Anywy, other reasons, I discovered about the bells being silenced is that their churchbell system is worn out or broken after being played for all those years, and the church lacked the funds ot repair it or to buy an updated and newer system. Personally, I enjoy all kinds of churchbell music, even if it's canned or electronic, sythesized. it all sounds  grand to me. Howerver since most of the bells had been silenced, out community had gotten a little nore uneasy, and difficult to live in. If we only took time out to listen and enjoy the churchbells when they are rung, and think about Jesus and his teachings, then things might not be so rough in our lives, as we now need Jesus more than ever. What's next in line, if you silence the bells, then the churches will be closed down? Hopefully not. I've kept up my love of bells, even when they've been silenced by various church bell recordings I found on the internet that sounded just like the churches that played them. So although I found a bunch, there's still  more that I need to find, as it's the certain tone of sound of the  bell that is important to me. It brings about joyous memories of when I had gone to that church to worship, before it was transferred to Yale Korean.
      I have nothing against Yale Korean, but it will be a problem one day to find a church that's right for me to worship in, as I don't speak or read and write within their language. Of course one Yale Korean church usually has a bazzar during the summer. I go there, just to try and bring about the pleasant memories of what the church used to have. So far, I've seen lots of changes within the interrior, and maybe I can read their characters, but finding the old churchbell system is tough. I probably is located within a sound system within a small booth that's upstairs. I remember seeing it and writing it down years ago, but I forgot the name of the system. Someithing like Sanyo, and after contacting the company, and asking if ther system plays chuchbells, they said yes, but they don't make recordings of that for people. I did manage to find and learn the names of the churchbell systems like Schulmerich, Novabell and discovered their websites and company info. As they had provided sample and demo mp3 files of their bell music. It's great to learn about things like that.
But their sysyems can cost hunderds to thousands of dollars, and I don't have that kind of money, let alone the place to put it in within my basement apartment.
      So that's my blog and my thought. Sad to no longer hear the churchbells or having them diminish from our communities.  But my hope and faith will always be kept alive, as even if I hear a very faint sounding chuchbell in the distance, the bell's legacy and songs and stories will be kept alive.

A doorbell that has gone to extreme

I love the sound of doorbells, with it's soothing ding dong sound. But as for the fancy ones, you get rod chimes ringing the Westminster chimes, or at least pat of the song. But I came across a video on youtube,where someone had built a doorbell that had gone to extremes. They had purchased a 1940's Cathedrial  chime unit and incorporated computer technology to play the chimes automatically, and bingo, you get a Cathedrial chime doorbell. Image  that when someone comes to your home, and rings your doorbell, your will hear the Cathedrial Chimes play it's programmed full song, to let you know that someone is at your door. It's a beautiful thing, and wonderous things that had been made. I love it.

Dirty Jobs- churchbell maintenance and repair

I remember one episode of this show, which was about churchbells, and how they are taken care of. Indeed it's a dirty job. They've shown the tour of the local foundry, where they make the bells, and clean and repair them. Believe it or not, the start of making ga huge church bell starts off with horse poop. The poop you can say is used to create the mold and is used when pouring the hot melted metals into the mold. It hold the shape of the bell together, as it goes through a cooling process and sets to harden. Amazingly when they show the process to repair and restore old churchbells going over 100 years, you take on a strong appreciation of such a musical device. But that's not all, the guy had joined the team in a job of going into a church, and climbing up to the belfry to do some maintence work on their bells. They had to scrunch down really low and crawl under the bell to clean and lubracate the genetator and parts, which automatically ring the bells. At times the poor guy had accidentally hit the bell as he took out the clapper and he had almost gone deaf. Not to mention whem the bells had begun to play the Angel's praise or something when the church bells ring 13 times. The poor guy was inside the bell as it rung. It was a grand experience as I wondered what the inside of a belfry looked like. But it was no picnic, as the inside was covered in pigeon poop, and dead pigeons as they had somehow flown into the belfry and never got out.  After a long time, the job was done, they went back downstairs,  and the owner had flipped the switch to test out the bells. And they had rang out beautifully. What a job, but it's necessary to have those bells to ring to call everyone to worship

Bells and their Music By Wendell Wescott

I found a cool book in our library within the children's section called "Bells and their Music" By Wendell Wescott. I found the book to be very informative and facinating, as it had photos, illustratoins that explained the history of bells, and how their music had influenced our community.  What I found interesting was a photo of a church that their bells hanging from a rope or something and being exposed under the roof right above the entrance way. They also show the process of  making those chruchbells within a foundry. The book also contains a floppy record containing various bell recordings from 1970. Very nice bell music.  As within somne carillons, there are clock towers that ring  those bells automatically, and it works just like a giant music box. There's a giant wheel with tons holes to place metal  pegs inside. As the whell turns, the peg presses onto a lever, which pulls the cord and rings the bell. And each of the pegs are placed within a certain hole, as each peg will ring a different bell to play it'ssong. Not to mention of some of the  carillons of the world where you see how high up it is and all the bells that are seen. True that the chimer, must climb to the top of the carillon  by stairs to play the bells, but the mechanical version makes it convenient, but occasional matinence is needed for proper function. I never got tired of reading that book, and I think that the book is  available to read online, but alas, they don't have the recording of the bells. But our library in Hicksville Ny has a copy of the book with the record inside.

electronic Churchbell playing devivces

If you've been curious about these electronic churchbell devices, then you can find a ton of them on Youtube. I didn't place the videos up there or make them, but I thought it was a great way to find out info on them and what they sounded like. It sure beats getting yelled at by the minister or anyone else at the  church that I have asked about their bells.

Curiosity on Church Chimes and bells.

I admit that I was curious about those wonderous and harmonious sounding bells often heard during church services.  I look in the steeple and figure that the church must have some type or carillon somewhere? From my experience, turns out that they don't have a carillon, but an electric carillon device that plays recordings of the bells. At the  most within their steeple is the speakers or megaphones that the bell music is piped to. But from other videos I've seen on Youtbe, I've gotten a better idea of what it's like up there, as naturally I would get in big trouble if I went up there myself. I've seen the giant Cathedrial chimes that are usually hung high on the wall just above a special organ that controlls the chimes. I just wanted to find out what those sounds were and how those bells are played and where churches keep them. Mostly I admit of being afraid of getting yelled at by the minister or someone working in the church, just because I wanted to find their churchbells. I had gotten yelled at harshly by a male minister at a Trinity church I had gone to from a bell related incident, so as a result I'm never going back to that church again.