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She’s just asking how to put just a little more oomph in those bells.
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Audri put her handbells back into their carrying case and said, “I feel my bell ringing is improving, but sometimes I can’t help but feel I’m just banging them around and I struggle to express my heart through it.” Joseph stood up and gave her advice he’d gleaned from years of ball ringing, “here’s what I tell myself: don’t think of playing as “performing,” think of it as listening to who you are, inside. Listen to your identity, to the core of your being. Imagine it as a love song to your people, where you are from. Trust me. If you do that, everyone else will be hearing the same thing.” Seeing what she perceived as the flaw in Joseph’s argument, Audri said, “I’m from Iowa, I’m not sure people want to hear that.”
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I’m from California, people do.
“Here is a song of my people… ? O! fair it is as poet’s dream, O! Iowa, In Iowa. Go read the story of thy past. O! Iowa, O! Iowa… ?”
The question marks should be musical note symbols.
I think its better with the question marks!
It says that Joseph has years of experience with ball ringing. That sounds weird, and completely unrelated 😉
“Joseph stood up and gave her advice he’d gleaned from years of BALL ringing”
I don’t see how that is related …
Hey… I’m from Iowa… and play in a bell choir… We can always use more ringers in our group, especially someone that can do six-in-hand! AUDRI, give us a call! 🙂
I’m from Iowa and play bells too!!
FYI on the art. Usually bell players wear gloves to keep the fingerprints off of the bells. They show prints as tarnished smudges and are a pain to clean.
@Christopher, a heads up: there is a typo in the written description of the comic.
“Joseph stood up and gave her advice he’d gleaned from years of *ball* ringing”
The mental images are too overwhelming…!
Now me, listening to who I am, my core identity, my people… take about one bell.
Wow. These are two people with a shared interest, but widely differing perspectives.
When my dad was first playing solos on trombone he asked an older player he respected how to approach them. He said to stand up and think to yourself: “Listen to how good I am”. My dad said it worked very well for him, and having played with him I can attest he was a good soloist for his level of ability, showing off what he was good at. He’s 85 now and not the player he was, but he still knows how to show off what he can still do (which is largely his beautiful tone and pinpoint tuning).
I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more cow… um handbells
Joseph’s advice applies to any performance art, or even art that never leaves the conservatory or sewing room, for that matter. You must find that within yourself that, as Audri herself says, comes from the heart. You cannot force it. You cannot even repipe it, if it’s going somewhere else. It doesn’t have to be Iowa. It can be pride in anything that strengthens you. It also also be the fire in whatever angers you. But it must come from you, and comes when you are the quietest within yourself that you can be, so that it alone makes the sound you want to hear. And then it will come.
Hey, it worked for John Coltrane. Worked for Jackson Pollack, too. I daresay it worked for John Updike, though he publicly disavowed it. But I say, Read “Dog’s Death” and hear it in your blood. And you will.
Needs more cowbell. 😉