By Joel Frady

Fourteen musicians will gather on Sunday, Dec. 14, at Bethany United Methodist Church as one unit, each

playing a few bells to craft the music of The Ding-a-Lings. Directed by Jane Lonon, the bell choir will be presenting their Holiday Concert at the church at 7 p.m. and will feature both sacred and secular tunes.

Lonon said that they added the hand bell ministry in 1987, and the group just celebrated their 20th anniversary. As far as performing is concerned, she equated a hand bell concert to a athletic team.

"It's a great team sport, because you've got 14 people and if you leave out one person, without those notes you're losing the melody," she said. "My ringers are assigned, typically, to four bells. If you're equating it to the piano, it's like two white keys and two black keys. And they're reading music just like if you were playing in a band or an orchestra."

The bells are made of a combination of bronze, tin and copper, each crafted to certain pitches so that each bell plays a single note. Although The Ding-a-Lings perform most Sundays at Bethany United Methodist Church, Lonon said that the group has been able to evolve with the craft of bell music.

"The music for the hand bell has really grown and evolved over the last 20 or 30 years," she said. "It has become a real art form in and of itself, and the compositions for the hand bells are much more complex" than a composition from a church hymnal.

Sunday night's performance will feature the accompaniment of several instruments, including the guitar and the piano, as well as different styles of playing the hand bells. On one tune, for instance, the bells will stay on the table as the musicians hit the bells with mallets to create the notes.

Lonon added that there is also more to enjoy at a hand bell concert than just the music, and that audiences can also look forward to "watching it, because it's a very physical, choreographed activity as well, and to be able watch this group of ringers in front of you playing - and how it all flows - it's really neat. It's unlike any other kind of musical experience."

The concert will feature several notable holiday songs, such as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "White Christmas." The show will also incorporate alumni members of the choir that are no longer with the group on the show-ending "Silent Night."

The members of the choir are: Karen Brock, Linda Bruce, Ginger Chapman, Alice Collins, Kathy Howell, Dana Johnson, Jennifer Judson, Donna Lamm, Grady Lonon, Becky Marsten, Edie Miller, Pat Morrison, Burt Prange, and Connie Woolard.

Admission to the concert is free and the public is invited to attend. To find out more about the concert or the Ding-a-Lings, contact Bethany United Methodist Church at (336) 877-2801 or Lonon at (336) 877-5534.