In this article, narratives of a salsa concert and a lesson with a Native American flute performer provide openings for exploring grooves and their application in the music classroom. The term groove is examined, along with some non-Western ideas about time as represented in the music of the West African Kpelle people. A sixth-grade composition project in upstate New York offers a window on nontraditional notation and compositional models that hold potential to deepen and extend students’ understanding of rhythmic structures and concepts.