Row Row Row Your Boat
Credits: Julian Orbach, July 1997.
Jugglers needed (base version): 4 intermediate
Four jugglers stand in a square facing in, and sing. The pattern is in the form of a canon or round - there are four verses, and each person starts with a different verse, so everyone gets to sing every part, at a different time to each other.
The song is the traditional Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
If you don't know the tune, try this site or you can download this small mp3 (32 Kb).
To start, one juggler starts at Verse 1 and every other juggler should be singing the verse immediately AFTER the juggler on their RIGHT.
The passing pattern is:
| Beat: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Hand: | R | L | R | L | R | L | R | L |
| Verse 1 | ||||||||
| Sing: | Row, | row, | row | your | boat | |||
| Pass: | across | self | self | across | ||||
| Verse 2 | ||||||||
| Sing: | Gent- | ly | down | the | stream | **. | ||
| Pass: | self | left | left | self | ||||
| Verse 3 | ||||||||
| Sing: | Merri- | ly, | merri- | ly, | merri- | ly, | merri- | ly, |
| Pass: | across | right | right | across | ||||
| Verse 4 | ||||||||
| Sing: | Life | is | but | a | dream | ** | ||
| Pass: | self | self | self | self | ||||
** It is easy to forget the extra beats in Verse 2 and Verse 4 as there is nothing to sing here.
The pattern could be done without singing, but it is actually easier to keep count by singing along and associating the passes with certain words. Failing to sing is not in keeping with the pattern, and is frowned upon in polite juggling circles.
Variation: 1-count (i.e. Verse 3 is ultimate instead of 2-count)