Canon Passing

There is a 4-people pattern with quite a long sequence, that one can remember by singing "Frère Jacques" ("Brother John", "Bruder Jakob" etc.) accompanying the pattern.

German Wikipedia lists the text of several other languages: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A8re_Jacques

ding dang dong

The sequence is like this:

Straight self  self  Straight
Self     left  left  self
Straight right right straight
Self     self  self  self

So the first part of the sequence

Straight self  self  Straight

is connected with "are you sleeping, are you sleeping".

The second sequence

Self     left  left  self

with "brother John, brother John"

The third

Straight right right straight

with "can't you hear the bells ring, can't you hear the bells ring",

TZhe fourth

Self     self  self  self

with "Ding, dang, dong, ding, dang, dong".

Four jugglers are standing in a formation forming a square facing each other. All throws are done from the right hand. "Left, straight, right" in the sequence above mean a pass to the juggler in the named relative position to you.

The pattern begins with juggler A having the first sequence, juggler B, who is to the left of juggler A starts with the 2nd sequence, C with the 3rd and D with the last.

Each juggler singing then progresses through the canon.