Updated: 6th July 2008

Summer Samba for Aberdeen teambuild

Summer certainly started with a bang for Drumfun, and after the busy day at the Edinburgh team build on the 1st July (see below), the 2nd was spent with Steve facilitating local community groups in hometown Inverness, while Edinburgh based facilitator, Olivia Furness was busy transforming a group of executives from Shell Oil company into a Summer Samba Band. The teambuilding event was held at Woodbank House, Aberdeen and the drumming was one of many activities organised on the day by corporate event organisers Team Challenge Company. Olivia facilitated 3 groups, each of 30 and had only 40 minutes to turn them into a Rio sounding carnival band! Each of the groups excelled themselves and with the help of the sunshine, were able to play outdoors in true Brazilian style!
What better way to start the summer

Click here to visit the Team Challenge Company website.

NHS Edinburgh Teambuild

On the 1st July, Steve and Liz were invited to run a team building day with a small group of staff for the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland team based in Edinburgh. The day was another fantastic opportunity to facilitate our unique day long programme involving group drumming exercises led by Steve and group processing of the activities facilitated by Liz.
The day was a tremendous success and the feedback from the day was some of the best we've had yet. All the team members put 100% in and were rewarded with the creation of a very fun and funky rhythm orchestra. The team left feeling energised, refreshed, invigorated and a much stronger unit than they had been just 6 hours previous!
A big thanks to all of the team for making the day so much fun, and for giving us all jaws sore with laughter. You were great!

Click here to see some of the comments left by the team

If you go down to the woods today

On 19th June Drumfun were invited to Dunain Community woodland to work with the primary 7 classes from nearby Muirown Primary School to develop a short performance on their new woodland xylophones. The xylophones were made by our sister company 'Singing Trees' and were installed on the day with the help from pupils from Charleston Acadamy. The day was an incredible success with lots of music interspersed with woodland games. It was a real pleasure to work and play with the children from Muirtown school and the day finished with a fun filled show for the mums and teachers. Needless to say we were promptly booked for a repeat event next summer.

Click here to visit the singing trees website, or click here for Dunain Community Woodland

Activities week - Hoorah!

A large proportion of our work in May and June has been spent with secondary schools. This has been an absoloute delight as so often secondary schools are restricted with timetables, which means it is often difficult for them to schedule in special activity days. However....with the timetable changeovers and the abundance of 'Activity Weeks' we have had an absolute blast with this age group. A new body percussion piece was developed for the workshops and along with the bad egg jokes (or should that be bad egg yokes! ...sorry) and silly hats we have had some of the most fun we have ever had on a tour. Special thanks to all of the teachers and kids that have made us feel so welcome and appreciated. See you all next year!

Click here to visit our youtube site with lots of body percussion tutorials

Outdoor Xylophones for Wester Ross

During the first week of June, Steve took himself of to the hills of the West Highlands to deliver school garden xylophones to 7 of the primary schools in the region. This was more like a holiday than work! The sun never stopped shining and the peace of the mountains and valleys and the lochs and the forests reminded Steve just why he moved up to the Highlands 10 years ago. The schools were all very pleased with their new instruments and its lovely to know that the hills are alive with the sound of music!

Click here to visit the singing trees website.

Collaboration for UHI teambuild

On 16th April Drumfun came to the new Merkinch Community Theatre in Inverness for a fun packed day of learning and team building for the staff of the marketing department of the University of the Highlands and Islands. The team consisted of 25 staff covering a wide range of posistions within the marketing team. The day was co-facilitated by Elsie Normington, life coach and development worker, who did a fantastic job at proccessing the drumming exercises into team generated learnings. It was a great collaboration and a real pleasure to work with Elsie who is such a fantastic facilitator and coach. The day was a huge success and everyone left feeling energised, motivated and valued as part of their team. Many thanks to Alan and Ruth for organising the day and we trust the team spirit and funky grooves generated will serve you well into the future!!

Click here to see some of the comments left by the team, and here for Elsie's coaching site.

Local lunch club get a dose of Drumfun!

When I was asked to visit the senior citizens lunch club to talk about my work as a drum circle facilitator, I had no idea that they would turn out to be a bunch of mad for it drummers! How lovely it was to have a group of seniors in their 80's and 90's pounding on the drums and showering the circle with smiles! After the wonderful lunch, I gave a brief talk about my work and how I came to be a full time drum circle facilitator, but it was obvious that this group didn't want to listen, they wanted to play!! After warming them up with the 'egg game' (never fails!!) we all grabbed a drum and off we went into drum circle heaven for the next 30 minutes! One of the staff said that she saw some people smile that she had never seen smile before! .....What a great job this is!!

Fort William School Tour

At the end of February, we visited 5 primary schools in Lochaber for follow up workshops from Highland 2007. The schools involved were Invergarry, SPean Bridge, Roy Bridge, Caol and Upper Achintore. A fantastic time was had by all children, and the Upper Achintore P6/7 class were a great way to end the mini tour!- what a blast we had with them!!
We were concentrating mainly on allowing the children to develp their own rhythmical awarness with games involving them making choices of sounds and decisions about where to put their sounds within a rhythm structure. This format worked very nicely and often resulted in a grand finale where the children became a multi percussion ensemble each making up their own rhythms, moves and sounds.... Extremely Groovy!

Many thanks to all of the teachers and children for making it such a great week.

Highland 2007 Showcase

On the 11th January 2008 Happyness Drum Circles showcased some of the drumming workshops they had been involved in with the 'Highland Promise' - the cultural pledge to schools, as part of the Highland Year of Culture.
Steve, Andy and the Primary 6 children from Muirtown Primary School Inverness (The Red Hot Chilli Drummers), took to the stage at Eden Court Theatre and performed their version of a South African Welly Boot Dance followed by a dynamic Drumming performance based on the West African rhythms of Yankade and Makru. The children excelled themselves and they all left the theatre feeling like true stars.
Steve and Sophie from the group got a rare chance to meet up with Scotlands 1st Minister, Mr Alex Salmond, and used the opportunity to give him a few tips on how to play the Drum!


We aim to continue our relationship with the school and in the summer we will be building 2 outdoor garden xylophones for the schools sustainable woodland project. Click here to go to Muirtown Primary school's web site, and here for more information on our outdoor xylophone project.

Drumfun Performance Troupe at Highland Lights Festival

On the 12th January, the Drumfun Djembe troupe braved the sub zero temperatures of a Highland winter's night and played their African Drums for the final celebrations of the Highland Year of Culture at the Highland Lights festival. The band consisted of Steve Sharpe, Henry Fosbrooke, Gavin De Klerk & Fiona Jean on Djembe, and Andrew Davidson on Djun Djun. We got a fantastic response from the crowd and the atmosphere was electric. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces and a fantastic way to say thankyou and goodbye to the Year of Culture.
Click here to view a short video clip of us performing on the night.