Classes
This page first has a list of what classes are offered when, then alphabetically describe each class, followed by class instructor biographies.
Schedule of Classes
| Divisional Class Session | Class Names | Room |
| Argon Class Session 1 | Intro to Multiple Bell Techniques: Weaving and 4iH with Michèle Sharik | TBA |
| Care and Feeding of Your Handbells: Bell Maintenance with Beth Mays Loebig | TBA | |
|
Marking Your Music with Carol Pickford |
TBA | |
| Argon Class Session 2 | Reading Session (Level 1 – 2) with Scott McGlasson | TBA |
| Bell Tree with Alison Pruett | TBA | |
| Learning MuseScore with Sam Strasser | TBA | |
| Argon Class Session 3 | Energizing Your Group with Rima Greer | TBA |
| Building Blocks of Rhythm with Barb Walsh | TBA | |
| Articulations with Michèle Sharik | TBA | |
| Xenon Class Session 1 | Four in Hand with Nikki Evans | TBA |
| Care and Feeding of Your Handbells: Bell Maintenance with Beth Mays Loebig | TBA | |
| Everything but the Bells with Rima Greer | TBA | |
| Xenon Class Session 2 | Reading Session (Level 3 – 4) with Scott McGlasson | TBA |
| Bell Trees with Alison Pruett | TBA | |
| MuseScore with Sam Strasser | TBA | |
| Xenon Class Session 3 | Energizing Your Group with Rima Greer | TBA |
| Bringing the Notes off the Page with Barb Walsh | TBA | |
| Six in Hand with Nikki Evans | TBA |
Class Descriptions
Articulations (Michèle Sharik) – So you can ring and damp. Can you martellato? Tap pluck? Thumb damp? Make it sing? Join this class to learn how to execute these special techniques and more, including shake, swing, gyro, echo, vibrato, and even a ring touch that won’t leave a mark! We’ll also learn the notation indicators for these techniques and which work (and how to modify them) for handchimes.
Bell Trees (Alison Pruett) – This is an introduction to bell trees. Participants will learn to string multiple strands of the bell tree and play simple pieces. We will be following the “keyboard setup” established by Barbara Brocker.
Bringing the Notes off the Page (Barb Walsh) – Why do some groups and individuals sound more musical? Do they just have more talent? One of the keys to being more musical is knowing how your part functions within
the music, and how to physically make that happen. Join us in this class to discover how your piece of the puzzle fits into the musical whole.
Building Blocks of Rhythm (Barb Walsh) – Let’s explore the building blocks of rhythm – pulse and pattern! In this class, we’ll learn to feel and find both macrobeats and microbeats, then use them as a foundation for counting, clapping, and playing rhythms with confidence.
Care and Feeding of Your Handbells: Bell Maintenance (Beth Loebig) – Whether you play Malmark or Schulmerich handbells, come learn how to take care of your bells. See how the bells are put together and learn basic adjustments to get the bells playing the way you want them.
Energizing Your Group With Collaborative and Creative Process (Rima Greer) – Participants will explore what makes your group a group. How do you inspire commitment and form a unified vision to improve attendance, performance level, and harmony? Participants will discuss strategies for the members of your group which includes building support structures, choosing repertoire, and a performance style that resonates with both your group and your audience.
Everything But The Bells (Rima Greer) – This class is filled with simple techniques that anyone can do, but which will radically change the relationship your group has with the audience. Participants will work with posture, eyeline, subtext, relationships, and intent to enhance communication with your audience. Participants will also work with “levels” of performance including layering musical techniques with body language, movement, and even work on some strategies to prevent, and effectively deal with, stage fright and train wrecks.
Four in Hand (Nikki Evans) – Learn a variety of four-in-hand techniques and applications for each one. This course will be particularly useful to treble ringers looking to advance their four-in-hand ability as well as solo ringers interested in learning new techniques.
Intro to Multiple Bell Techniques: Weaving and 4iH (Michèle Sharik) – This hands-on class will cover “weaving” (ringing three, four, or more bells in any sequence) and “four-in-hand” (ringing two bells in each hand). Find out how weaving can help you wend your way through difficult musical passages without getting warped, and how to use four-in-hand so you have even more options!
Marking Music (Carol Pickford) – Participants will learn how to mark their music for effective ringing. This will include…
MuseScore (Samantha Strasser) – Musescore is free music notation software that can be used to compose or arrange handbell music. Participants will cover the basics of using the software, how to add in handbell specific notations, as well as user forums and handbooks. Participants will get the most out of this class if they bring a laptop (NOT a tablet) with the software already installed to follow along with the demonstrations.
Reading Session, Level 1-2 (Scott McGlasson) – Participants will read new releases from publishers including From The Top Music, Hope, Lorenz, AGHER, and more. Music will be available for purchase through an order form at the conclusion of this session.
Reading Session, Level 3-4 (Scott McGlasson) – Participants will read new releases from publishers including From The Top Music, Hope, Lorenz, AGHER, and more. Music will be available for purchase through an order form at the conclusion of this session.
Six in Hand (Nikki Evans) – Learn a variety of six-in-hand techniques and applications for each one. This course is for treble ringers who are proficient in four-in-hand and are looking to develop or learn the technique required to ring six-in-hand.
Class Instructors
Rima Greer started playing piano and composing at age 4. She dumped it all at 12 to study dance, and spent the next many years of her life as the last swan on the left. Returning to music in the 1980’s, Rima has studied guitar, violin, and composition. In 1986 she joined five other musicians in founding Campanile, the first professional show to perform Handbell Theatre. She worked as resident composer, arranger, and choreographer until the group’s retirement in 2006. Campanile toured extensively in the United States, Canada, and Asia. Rima has traveled the country as a handbell clinician, teaching at countless private workshops and AGEHR functions, specializing in advanced/alternative techniques, and whole performance/movement classes. She co-created the Pinnacle events for Handbell Musicians of America’s, authored the “Burn the Box”column in the Guild’s Overtones publication for nearly 10 years, and served as Area XII Chair from 2010-2012. She is the co-author (with Roger Bowerman) of Turning the Tables – Exploring the Collaborative Creative Process, (available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible) and also authored Quill/Driver Press’s The Real, Lowdown Dirty Truth about her career in the film industry.
Rima currently serves as the head of the costume department for North Coast Dance, and occasionally choreographs for them as well. She and her husband, Scott, and giant dogs, Lucas and Daisy, live in Northern California.
At 8 years of age, Beth Mays Loebig picked up a C7 behind her mother’s back one afternoon at the church handbell rehearsal. Over thirty years later, Beth graduated from Azusa Pacific University with Masters degrees in both Handbell Performance and Conducting. She is now an accomplished handbell soloist, music teacher, and conductor. Beth is now continuing her studies at Claremont Graduate University, working on a Ph.D. in Musicology. Her dissertation, Performance Practice Issues of the Modern English Handbell, focuses on the many decisions a ringer faces as they play handbells. She is a founding member of the professional handbell ensemble Timbre and serves as Education Director for Area 12 of the Handbell Musicians of America.
Dr. Scott McGlasson is the Director of Instrumental Music at Sierra Vista High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, principal conductor of the Las Vegas Youth Philharmonic, and the Chair-Elect for Area 12 of the Handbell Musicians of America. Scott is a graduate of The University of Nevada Las Vegas holding a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree with a concentration in Wind Conducting and also holds a Master of Arts degree in Secondary Education from Chapman University and a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from California State University Stanislaus. Scott regularly guest performs with the Nevada Chamber Orchestra and has played with the Cello Society of Southern Utah, The Santa Maria Philharmonic, The Lompoc Pops Orchestra and was the assistant conductor for the San Luis Obispo Grand Opera. His teachers have included Thomas G. Leslie, Anthony LaBounty, Zane Douglass, and Brian Asher Alhadeff.
Scott is an accomplished composer who has had works premiered at such events as the 2017 Handbell Musicians of America National Conference in Anaheim, California and was a featured composer for From The Top Music Publishing at the 2024 HMA National Conference in Hartford, Connecticut.. In 2023 his composition Brother Green was selected as a finalist in the Midwest Clinic new school band composition contest. Scott has been a music educator in California and Nevada for ten years where he has taught middle and high school band, orchestra, and choir; most notably at Lois and Jerry Tarkanian Middle School in Las Vegas, Nevada and Arroyo Grande High School in Arroyo Grande, California. Scott is a published composer with the Lorenz Corporation and From The Top Music. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity, The Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and the Nevada Music Educators Association.
Alison Pruett has been playing handbells since 1989 and bell trees since 2014. She has studied the Brocker keyboard setup since beginning with bell trees. Alison has taught bell trees at several local and Area events in Nevada and California. She is heavily involved in the bell tree community including the annual Into the Forest bell tree event. Alison is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Michèle Sharik rings professionally with Sonos Handbell Ensemble, is the founding Artistic Director of Timbré, and is an internationally renowned handbell soloist, conductor, and teacher. She has played, taught, and conducted bells in 40 United States and ten countries. She designed and was the Master Teacher of the Handbell Techniques curriculum for HMA’s certification program. In addition to degrees in computer programming, visual and performing arts, and music technology, she has a master’s certificate in Performing Arts Medicine and is a fervent “evangelist” for safe ringing techniques. Michèle serves as Chair for Area 12.
Samantha Strasser began playing handbells in a church youth choir formed with her fellow middle school band classmates, naming themselves “Heavenly Metal”. Since moving to Reno, Nevada she has performed many times with Tintabulations, and participates in as many regional and national events as she can. She began arranging music for handbells sometime around 2014, and recently published an arrangement of Carry On Wayward Son with Jeffers Handbell Supply. Samantha is currently studying audio engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno with the goal of someday becoming an expert in recording handbells.
Barb Walsh is a retired public school music teacher who taught in the
Reno/Sparks area for 33 years. She started ringing in 1985, directing in 1986
and has been on the Handbell Musicians of America Area 12 board since 1993.
Barb has developed handbell programs ranging from elementary schools to
community groups, including Tintabulations, known for their high energy,
innovation and musicianship.
When not teaching, directing, or ringing, Barb plays flute/piccolo in local
orchestras and shares backcountry adventures with her husband, dog and
horses
More coming soon