Fitting our Drum Puzzle Pieces Together

On our third day of drumming we added a new rhythm called GG5, in which we play twice in the center and five times on the edge of our drum, like this:  Goon (space) Goon (space) One Two Three Four Five!  

Then we built our first drum sentence.  One side of the circle played the Goon Doe that we learned yesterday, and the rest of the circle played the GG5 - at the same time!  

As we started to listen more carefully to each other, we began to fit these two rhythms together like puzzle pieces.  We noticed that everyone on our team had to play exactly at the same time before we could fit our music into the music of the other team.  Quite the challenge, but what an amazing sound we made when we worked together!  

Check out this video of one of the teams playing Goon Doe at exactly the same speed:

Now as we all know, sentences need a capital letter to show the beginning and a period to show the end.  So Roger taught us a secret code that only drummers know.  When we hear this special rhythm, we know it's time to start our music, or bring it to close.  Unfortunately, it really is a secret - so all I can say is that it has something to do with milk and potato chips.  If you would like to know the details, you'll just have to ask the student drummer in your family!