Spoons playing is easy to learn, enjoyable, andon a more practical sideenormously impressive to Aunt Minnie when the family gets together over the holidays.

The first (and only) things you'll need in order to complete this compact musk course are your instruments: two spoons. Teaspoons will work well for this purpose, stainless steel tablespoons will do the job even better, and silver-plated scoopers will sound best of all. (On the other hand, solid silver implements dent too easily to be worth using.) Now that you know what to fetch, I want you to put this magazine down, run into the kitchen, and get some spoons.

You're back! Let's start class off by mastering the basic "spoonster's" position. Place one of the instruments between your thumb and first finger . .. with the end of the utensil's handle on your palm and its approximate center crossing over your middle knuckle. Now put the other clacker between your first and middle fingers. Hold this second spoon upside down, so that the bottoms of both soup scoopers can hit each other. (If you have little hands-or big spoons-you might have to put a pair of fingers between the two implements.)

Next, make a fist and grip the handles of both spoons tightly. (Be sure to leave about half an inch between the two stirrers' bowls. That way, the convex sides will click together whenever you bang them against a surface . . . while your tight palm grip will act as a spring to pull the cups apart again afterward.) Try striking your leg with the spoons. Did you hear a clicking noise? Good. Try it again.

You're now ready to put your free hand above the spoons and hit the gripped implements down on your leg . . . up against your hand . . . down on your leg . . . and up on your hand again. Try this procedure slowly at first and work at getting a nice, steady, clicking rhythm.
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Remember to keep a firm grip on the spoon ends so that their bowls always bounce back-after impact-to a distance of one-quarter to one-half inch apart. Keep practicing the leg-and-hand rhythm for a while until you begin to feel comfortable with it.

When you're ready to move on, you can try to get some different sounds out of your kitchen instruments. Make a highpitched click by hitting just the tips of the spoons on your leg and hand, for instance ... or a lower-sounding clack by hitting the cups of those little ladles on your body. Experiment with the two riffs" for a while, and see what variations you can come up with.

OK, now it's time to add some rhythmic dynamics to your spoons playing, by accenting the second and fourth beats of the basic pattern. Simply hit the spoons m the =normal repeating sequence of leg . . hand . . . leg . . . hand . . . leg . . . hand . . . leg . . . hand, only every time you come to one of those italicized "leg" beats, strike a little harder to give that note a slight accent.

At this point, you should find some spirited music-either live or recorded-to play along with. (Southern stung band music, by the way, is ideal for spoons playing.) Accent every second and fourth beat, throw in the different tones that you've mastered, and go to it! Now, ain't that fun?

Answered by Arpit , an ibibo Advisor, at 1:42 AM on January 03, 2008

Here's the version I'm familiar with, but when I googled "spoons card game rules" I saw there are several other ways to play.
http://boardgames.about.com/ od/cardgames/a/spoons.htm
Players: 3 to 13 players. Best with 6 to 13 players.
Deck: A standard 52-card deck.
You also need one spoon for each player except one. EXAMPLE: With 8 players, you need 7 spoons. Goal: To be the first to collect four cards of the same rank. If an opponent beats you to that goal, to not be the last to realize it.
Setup: For each player in the game, you need four cards of the same rank from the deck. For example, with 5 players you could use the Aces, 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s. Shuffle the cards and deal them to the players.
Each player will have four cards. Put the spoons in the middle of the table so that every player can reach them.
Gameplay: Players simultaneously choose one card from their hands, pass that card to the opponent on their left, and pick up the card they've received from the opponent on their right. Each player can never have more than four cards in his hand, so it's illegal for a player to pick up a new card before passing one to the left.When a player collects four of a kind, as subtly as possible, take a spoon and place it in front of yourself.
The last player to grab a spoon is the loser.
OPTIONAL: Players who take a spoon can continue to pick up and pass cards, making it more difficult for other players to realize what has happened. (The player who actually collected four cards of the same rank must always pass the card they just picked up, because passing any other card would break up their four-of-a-kind.)Scoring: The last player to grab a spoon is the loser and is eliminated from the game. Remove a set of four cards from the deck and play another round.
OPTIONAL: Each player has three lives. The last player to grab a spoon is the loser and loses a life. When a player loses all three of his lives he's eliminated from the game. Remove a set of four cards from the deck and play another round.
Winning: The final two players in the game are co-winners.

Answered by sumit , an ibibo Advisor, at 11:52 PM on December 21, 2007