These Are The Girls Rocking Glasgow ! | A week with GRG- The rock music school for kids.
Girls Rock Glasgow! If you haven’t heard of them, now you have!
Poster created by @prildork
⚡︎ Introduction
Girls Rock Glasgow (GRG) is a independently run rock music school for girls and non-binary childrem aged 8-16 that takes place right here in Glasgow. GRG runs for a week in July, and within that week the children take part in learning instruments, crafting in workshops, creating bands and at the end of it they perform live in a showcase of talent!
And for the first time in 5 years, GRG is back with a passion!
(Below photos are images of the merch stand that helped raise money for the future of GRG, and the setlist for the bands!)
Photos taken by @mairi_photos
Meet the musical marvels at the helm of Girls Rock Glasgow! Beth Craig Black and Alice Black are the multi-talented musicians running this ship, and they run it well. It’s been fantastic working alongside them both. They have created an amazing and supportive evironment not only for the kids, but for the volunteers as well!
Being in this environment of helping others learn instruments and boosting their confidence motivated me to get back to the hobbies that make me happy, and it has also inspired me to take up learning the piano. I write this newsletter today to spread the word about GRG in hopes that it may inspire you to volunteer next year, and to share this little known music school.
⚡︎ Girls Rock Glasgow 2024!
My role at Girls Rock Glasgow was to be a buddy to the many talented children that joined us. Buddying meant taking care of the kids and making sure they felt confident and supported during their musical journey. I worked mostly with the older teens while they learned their instruments and praticed their songs in band pratice. Overall it was a very laid back role, there was very little issues between the older children that would require me to step in and problem solve, but it was such a rewarding role. Helping them make badges, making sure they had plenty of water, and most importantly making sure they were getting help with any stress or issues they were having.
Most days had a consistent shedule- Instrument learning, workshop, band practice, work shop.
On Tuesday the workshops were Logo desiging and Songwriting. Two amazing workshops run by the talented workshop leaders. The juniors worked together in their bands to collaborate on ideas- much like real bands, there was head butting and disagreements but I always saw these kids use logic and reason to come to a mature agreement. The songwriting workshop had great tips on the many ways to write lyrics- there is no right or wrong- but sometimes it is easier to write lyrics when you already have a melody to pair it with. (As well as helping the kids, it was a massive help to me as someone who’s struggled to write lyrics but has always wanted to)
Photos taken by @mairi_photos
⚡︎ GRG 2024 Workshops
if you haven’t heard of GRG before now, and are thinking to yourself that this would be an amazing summer activity for your younger child/sibling/cousin or any child you might know, this is the list of some of the workshops that took place this year. (This may be helpful if you want to know what to expect)
- Songwriting - Lyric Workshop - Pedals workshop - Guitar Maintenence - Logo design - Poster making
- Confidence in your voice workshop - Warpaint and makeup - Screen printing
Photos taken by @mairi_photos
⚡︎ BANDS
So, who are the bands that performed live at this years showcase in Mono?
From the junior bands we have:
Life After Milk
Tiny Riot
Cardboard
The Exploding Kittens
Echo
And from the senior bands:
The Question
War Doctor
Autistic Dog Fight
Acetone
Diverted Traffic
Photos taken by @mairi_photos
Here I am cheering on the senior band ‘The Question’ who I sat in with all week while they practiced. Each and every band sounded amazing and the performances went so so well! Through the course of the week I was blown away by the creativity and ideas that the kids came up with. (safe to say they bordered on more talented than the adults)
⚡︎ Band/Artist Shoutouts!
Many of the volunteers working with Girls Rock Glasgow are talented musicians md artists themselves, and this small section is just to shoutout some of those because more people deserve to hear about them!
That’s all for now. Forgive the quite choppy journalism, it isn’t my strong suit but I still wanted to write a little something about what GRG and I have been up to this week.
Until the next, stay weird.
Kaci xc