Banging the gavel is an art form, one that takes coordination, grace and the ability to distinguish "top" from "bottom."

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan struggled with the convention gavel on Tuesday night. After Alaska contested the delegate count, Ryan brought the convention back to order by banging the ceremonial gavel. But the noise seemed to confuse the Wisconsin representative, and he struggled to determine its source.

SEE ALSO:Confident Nevada delegate gets his own state capital wrong at the RNC

Watch as Ryan slowly inspects the gavel, looking for an error in its design. After trying and failing to get the sound he desired, Ryan makes a desperate move and hits the gavel sideways.

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Thats not how gavels work Mr Speaker #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/VGnET300cj

— Mashable GIF (@mashablegif) July 20, 2016

Out of options, Ryan has no choice but to "shush" the crowd, a traditional classroom management technique.

Here's video with sound:

Speaker Ryan forgets how to use a gavel so he tells everyone to 'shhh' instead.pic.twitter.com/h1tHROA0uZ

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 20, 2016

Other speakers had similar problems:

THE RNC GAVEL IS ALREADY FALLING APART pic.twitter.com/6sL4Mp3z8V

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) July 18, 2016

Will the gavel survive tonight's convention? America waits and watches.