Look what came in the mail the other day! I bought the 13 Note Chromatic set from Amazon.com Click on the picture above for a direct link to Amazon.com My grandkids and I have had a blast playing with them. I'm using them for the Primary to sing in Sacrament Meeting. We are doing the song: Christmas Bells. Because this is their first time using bells I decided to do chords with the bells instead of the melody. It's much easier. Plus, my Primary already knows this song well. If you look at the song in the Children's Song book there are chord markings. In this song there are only 3 different chords: G, D7, C. They are played 11 times during the song. Next I looked up the notes that are in those 3 chords. I found I had 8 different notes: A, B, middle C, D, E, F#, G, treble C. Here is a handy chart for finding the notes in chords. There is also one in the Children's Songbook. Click HERE for a download. If this is confusing, just ask your pianist for help. He/She should know how to find the notes in a chord. Next, I made a chart with the words and chords. Click HERE for a download of the note labels I used on the chart. I printed a sheet of each and placed in a file for future use with other songs. Click HERE for the words to the song. I underlined the words in the song when the bells are rung so the kids would know when to play. We got permission from the Bishop to do this but he was a little worried about reverence because I'm having my 10 & 11 year old boys do it. My older girls are going to be singing the descant. So we had a very nice discussion about reverence in Sacrament meeting, the proper way to play the instrument, a little history about the instrument, and how the Mormon Tab. Choir uses them. I am also hand picking my 8 boys that will be playing the bells. Last Sunday, I introduced the bells to my Sr. Primary. As we practiced the song and descant, I rotated the bells so every child got a chance to play them. They LOVED it and were very well behaved. It was simple, fun, and sounded great! HAPPY RINGING!!