Ring-a-ding-ding

A business analyst, a trainer at Bob's Discount Furniture and a student who works at the Dubliner and Abercrombie & Fitch.

What does these people have in common?

They live to ring.

We're talking handbell ringing, of course, and as members of the Shoreline Ringers, they combine their love of music with a little fun.

At practice, for example, you can find Kristen Russo, a music teacher, headbanging to the chime of bells, while James Cady shows off an elaborate, goofy grin when Director Jane Nolan reminds them to smile.

"When you're with people who really like what they're doing, you can have fun and be silly... you have to be silly sometimes," says Russo, who has a bumper sticker on her car that says "Eat. Sleep. Ring."

But these bell-buffs are getting serious, as they prepare for a big show Monday at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Principal Conductor Candace Wicke of the Continuo Arts Foundation in New Jersey was looking for a bell choir for a program at Carnegie called Christmas Time in the City, Nolan says.

"It's so exciting and scary and crazy-cool," Russo says.

Though people tend to associate bells with the Christmas season, the Shoreline Ringers practice year-round at Ledyard Congregational Church. It's a community group, not associated with the church, which leaves them open to play classical music, jazz and blues.

"The variety is endless," Nolan says. "If it's out there, we've usually tried it."

Nolan remembers the first time she heard about handbells - tuned bells designed to be rung by hand. Even though she was a music major, she had no idea what they were.

Now, she finds that it's an activity that almost anyone can do. You don't have to sing, nor do you have to read music, though it helps. Players all read the same music but have to extract the notes for their part.

The group uses five octaves of Malmark handbells and five octaves of Malmark hand chimes, creating both rhythm and melody.

Unlike a traditional bell, the clapper on the handbell can only move forward and backward. The clapper also has a spring mechanism that prevents it from resting on the casting of the bell, allowing it to ring freely after it's struck.

Players use a fluid motion to raise and lower the various sized bells sitting on a table in front of them. They hold the bells against their chest and clap them against the table to vary the sounds, always wearing gloves to keep the bells from getting tarnished.

Handbells were used in English villages in the 1600s. Modern handbell-ringing in the United States can be traced back to Margaret Schurcliff, who began ringing carols on Beacon Hill in Boston in the 1920s.

Like many of the members of Shoreline Ringers, Nolan and Russo started playing through their church. Though they continue to play in churches, the group would like to be out in the community more, where many people have never heard handbells before, Nolan says.

www.shorelineringers.org