Bell tree


A bell tree, also known as Pakistan tree bells or Chinese bell tree , is a percussion instrument, consisting of vertically nested inverted metal bowls. The bowls, placed on a vertical rod, are arranged roughly in order of pitch. The number of bowls can vary between approximately 14 and 28. An effective glissando is produced by sliding a triangle beater, a glockenspiel mallet, or a xylophone mallet down the length of the tree. The bells are usually pitched to microtonal intervals and do not represent any formal scale. When a glissando is played, the inexactness of the order of the bowls' pitch is unnoticeable, merely creating a fuller sound.
The bell tree is often used to accentuate the start or end of passages of music with a "bright", "shimmer" effect, adding complexity.
Chick Corea and his group Return To Forever occasionally used the bell tree , as has the group Santana. Isaac Howie has sometimes used the bell tree in his compositions. The classic rock band America utilized one in Bell Tree, a song named for the instrument, found on their 1975 album Hearts''.