by Jill Fite
Area 9 Education Chair
The Chime Loan Program was established by Area 9 in 2003 in order to promote the use of handchimes and handbells in educational settings in the states of Oklahoma and Texas. Two three-octave sets of chimes are loaned each school year.
The ultimate goal of the Chime Loan Program is that an organization who receives the loan will love chimes enough to purchase their own. This has happened at least twice in the past four years.
For the past four years, the chimes have been used by hundreds of students. The ages range from kindergarten through high school. Most of the programs have focused on elementary children. Programs have ranged from public school daytime classes, after school enrichment programs, church music programs and non-profit children’s after school programs.
Chimes are used in a variety of ways. Here are some comments from past Chime Loan recipients:
Our youngest students used the chimes to help accompany numerous vocal pieces they were learning.
One of the teachers often played his guitar to accompany the students while they were playing their chime pieces.
We use the chimes almost every week in worship.
We often use the chimes for a choral introit.
We processed for Christ the King Sunday and have been ringing once a month for services.
We used them with movement activities. I played a beat pattern on the bass xylophone or keyboard and they moved around the room to the tempo and style I was playing as they randomly played notes in a pentatonic scale.
The most fun was adding the chime sound to our class set of xylophones (they played with the glockenspiels and metallophones) and with hand drums and tubanos.
My students have thoroughly enjoyed playing them this year. In fact, they have enjoyed them so much that I purchased a set for our school.
Our church community truly enjoys hearing and watching people of all ages adorn the worship services with bells and choirchimes and always request to see us playing more often!
We had a GREAT year ringing chimes! Thank you so very much for allowing us to utilize the chime loan program. I believe the children were very successful in gaining new music knowledge and they felt successful as well in their ability to play.
How can your organization utilize chimes?
Apply today at: https://area9.handbellmusicians.org/chime-loan-program/. The deadline for submitting your application is July 31, 2020.
