Bell Choir Ensemble

Bell Choir Ensemble is a non-combat, music-based activity introduced in the Wintersday: The Wondrous Workshop of Toymaker Tixx update and available during Wintersday 2012.

Description

Bell Choir Ensemble is a noncombat activity that lets you play Wintersday and Guild Wars-themed songs on handbells in a challenging rhythm minigame. Play the correct notes at the right time to score points and earn presents. There are four stages, each with a lower, middle, and upper sections. A player in the lower section will play the Low Octave, in the middle section the Middle Octave and in the upper section the High Octave. Players must talk to the Snowman and pick which section they wish to play.

Songs

• Prelude to Wintersday - Easy
• Beyond Hills of Snow - Easy
• Guild Wars - Medium
• Flight of the Infinirarium - Medium
• The Great Toymaker - Hard
• Fear Not This Night - Hard

Instructions

Skills
Note	Description
Do	Plays the note Do.
Re	Plays the note Re.
Me	Plays the note Me.
Fa	Plays the note Fa.
Sol	Plays the note Sol.
La	Plays the note La.
Te	Plays the note Te.
Do	Plays the note Do.

• While on stage, play notes by using skills assigned to 1 – 4 and 6 – 9 on your skill bar.
• During each song, colored spheres travel across the stage toward you. When the notes enter the inner circle and stop moving, it’s time to play!
• Each skill is color-coded to match the sphere and section of the stage it travels down.
• Miss a note, or play a note at the incorrect time, and you’ll take damage.
• Play a note at the correct time and your health is restored.
• Hit every note in a song to gain 100 points at the end. Every note you miss will subtract points based on how many total notes are in the song.
• It is still possible to get a perfect score even if you play a note at the wrong time or play a wrong note, so long as you hit all of the correct notes as well
• If you lose all your health, you miss out on points for that song and must wait until the next song to play again.
• There are a total of six songs, ranging from easy to hard as the playlist progresses.
• Presents are awarded based on the songs completed while remaining on stage. Survive all six songs and get the highest score you can!
• Stick around after the sixth song for one minute of Free Play. Play whatever you want, collaborate with people on your stage, and get creative!

Tips and Tricks

• If you are waiting for a song to start and you are not at full health, you can spam notes to quickly heal yourself before the next song begins. This must be done only when you are waiting for the next round to begin (waiting for other players). If you do this while the song is still playing then you will lose health instead of healing.
• It helps to position your camera so that it faces directly down onto the stage, zoomed as far out as possible. This makes it easier to see the notes before you play them.
• If you’re having a hard time with the difficult songs, stick around until the playlist repeats. You’ll still be rewarded for completing the easier songs.
• Try playing the number keys like a real keyboard, with one finger on each key. This helps with large leaps between notes.
• If no one else is playing on stage with you, the other parts will play automatically.

Reward

• Survive all 6 songs: 4 Personalized Wintersday Gifts
• Survive any 5 songs: 2 Personalized Wintersday Gifts
• Survive 4 songs, 2 of them on hard difficulty: 2 Personalized Wintersday Gifts,
• Survive any 3-4 songs: 1 Personalized Wintersday Gift
• Survive 2 songs on hard difficulty: 1 Personalized Wintersday Gift

Note: These rewards applies to any score, any rank on the scoreboard, and is not in any other way affected by the performance of other players.

Notes

• The pitches available to each player form a scale in Dorian mode (minor with a raised 6th scale degree) beginning on D. Pressing 1 will play a D, 2 will play an E, 3 is F, 4 is G, 6 is A, 7 is B, 8 is C, and 9 is a D an octave above the first one. The upper, middle, and lower parts each contain the same notes, only an octave apart.

Trivia

• This activity draws inspiration from the rhythm gaming genre, specifically from the Guitar Hero franchise — the colors of the lower 5 notes (Do, Re Mi, Fa, Sol) match the 5 note keys in that game (green, red, yellow, blue, orange).

See also

• Choir Bell
• Unbreakable Choir Bell

External links

• Choir Bell song list on Reddit, including response from Leif
• Bell Choir cover of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson