Everyone sits on the floor, cross-legged, in a circle close enough to easily pass a cup from one to the other. Each person gets a drink cup.

Each person follows these instructions:

1. Put the cup upside down in front of your left knee.

2. Holding your hands over the cup, clap twice while saying
'Clap, Clap'. This is beats 1, 2.

3. Pat the top of the cup three times while saying
'One, Two, Three' or ‘Tap, Tap, Tap’. This is beats 3, and, 4. (eighth note, eighth note, quarter)

4. Holding your hands over the cup, clap once. Then grab the top of the cup with the right hand and move it from the left knee to in front of the right knee still upside down. The verbal for this is
'Clap, grab, pass'. This is beats 5, 6, 7.

5. Beat 8 is a catch your breath beat -- and when you really get the speed going -- you'll need it!

6. Holding your hands over the cup, clap once.
Then twisting your right hand sideways to the left (thumb down), grab the left side of the cup.
Pick it up and tap the inside of your left palm with the rim of the cup,
then tap the floor (where the cup came from) with the bottom of the cup,
then place the bottom of the cup in your left-hand and let go with the right-hand.
Put your right hand, palm down, on the floor in front of your right knee and
place (pass) the cup, upside down, in front of your right-hand neighbor's left knee.
The verbal for this is
'Clap, grab, rim, floor, bottom, hand, pass'. This is beats 1 through 7 of the second half.

7. Again, beat 8 is a catch your breath beat.
Now the whole thing starts over with each person using the new cup that was just passed to them. The challenge of this game is to start out with a steady rhythm and keep everybody together. Then, my group likes to speed it up and see how fast we can go and still keep everyone together.

A new challenge is to start with the cup in front of your right knee and do the whole process moving from right to left.

I've heard this game works well also set to music like 'Row, row, row your boat'.