Bell was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Because he had been misdiagnosed at an early age as having a disease that would lead to blindness, his parents gave him a musical upbringing. He was something of a child prodigy, composing his first concerto at the age of 12. He graduated from the Royal College of Music in 1957. While studying there, he became friends with the flautist James Galway. From 1958 to 1990 he composed several classical works, including three piano sonatas, two symphonies, "Three Images of Ireland in Druid Times" (in 1993) for harp, strings and timpani, "Nocturne on an Icelandic Melody" (1997) for oboe d'amore and piano and "Three Transcendental Concert Studies" (2000) for oboe and piano. He had mastered and held a notable collection of instruments, including various harps, harpsichord, piano, cymbalom, and all the members of the oboe family of instruments (musette, oboe, cor anglais, bass oboe) and the heckelphone