Investment theme: Building skills and confidence, Improving health and well-being
I walked into Girls Rock School Edinburgh expecting noise. I did find noise, I also found friendly faces, laughter and joy!
Real joy. The kind that shows up on faces when something clicks, when the beat lands properly and when you realise you’re doing something you didn’t think you could do.
Girls Rock School Edinburgh runs on a simple idea: everyone works on the same song. Guitar, bass, drums and vocals are taught separately, then brought together in what GRSE call the Big Jam. Different skill levels, different confidence levels, leading to one shared piece of music performed for an adoring and supportive audience.
Fiona explained that the bass and the drums are the engine of the song. They hold the beat, keep everything moving forward. The guitar and vocals carry the melody. This made it easy for me – someone not musically minded – to really ‘get it’.
In the drum circle, someone described drumming as summoning. Magic rising from the centre of the circle, it helps everyone stay connected to where they are in the song.
Connection takes work. You can get lost in feeling. Counting brings you back. There’s even a word for one of the building blocks: paradiddle. It’s playful but disciplined. I learned how to paradiddle – sadly a few months later I’ve forgotten that skill.
When the beat went well, the reaction was immediate. Smiles. Laughter. A visible release of tension. One person said drumming felt like therapy. No one disagreed.
I was invited to have a go at singing. I did. Somewhere between nerves and encouragement, I found a vocal range that felt comfortable. That moment, small as it sounds, is exactly the point.
Girls Rock School Edinburgh creates space for women to try, to fail safely, to succeed loudly, and to surprise themselves.
One of the songs in the room that day was I Love Rock ’n’ Roll. The Joan Jett version. A song with a history of reclamation, of taking up space unapologetically. It felt like a quiet nod to what was happening in the room: people stepping forward, claiming something that had always been theirs. It’s now a firm favourite on my music playlist.
The Showcase on 29 November was the visible celebration. Bands on stage. Applause. Amps humming. It led me to wonder what the collective noun for a group of amps might be – for the record, the collective noun for a group of amps might reasonably be a roar.
Girls Rock School Edinburgh works with adult beginners, many of whom arrive with low confidence and leave standing taller. The evidence is clear: confidence grows, social connections strengthen, and wellbeing improves. Women form bands. Women rediscover parts of themselves they thought were lost.
This doesn’t happen by accident.
It happens because safe, well-run, inclusive spaces exist. Because instruments are available. Because venues are paid for. Because tutors are supported. Because someone believed this was worth funding.
At Women’s Fund for Scotland, we fund work like this because it tackles inequality at its roots. Confidence, connection, self-belief. These are not “nice extras”. They are foundations.
When donors support Women’s Fund for Scotland, they make moments like this possible. They back the engine and the melody. They help ensure that women across Scotland can access spaces where joy, skill, and self-belief are actively built, not just hoped for.
So yes, there was noise. There were amps. There was counting and feeling and the occasional missed beat.
And there were smiles, many, many smiles.
Which leaves me with the question I keep coming back to:
Does rock make you smile? I hope it does, because when it does, the impact lasts long after the last note fades.
If you want to bring that smile and lasting music to many more women and girls 12+ across Scotland – please get in touch with Shona to discuss making a donation.
