Adults in rural Scotland are often excluded from learning and making music due to age and geographic barriers. School music education ceases at the age of eighteen, and rural communities typically have limited, if any, access to local music educators, meaning that people are forced to travel to pursue music, at great personal cost and effort. CIMSRS (Community Instrumental Music Service for Rural Scotland) participants lamented to me their lack of access to music education, noting, for example: ‘I never had the chance’, I feel like we are just forgotten about’, and ‘I didn’t realise how isolated I was’.
Arianna Ranieri’s PhD research project, ‘CIMSRS’ investigated the impact of the provision of accessible music tuition and music-making opportunities for adults in rural Scotland. From the research findings, the impact profoundly demonstrated the need for CIMSRS as an ongoing initiative, reaching much further than just academia. With her supervisors, Arianna reached out to the Public Engagement team at Edinburgh Napier University to kickstart this, due to the shared ethos that purpose of academia is to contribute to the greater good.Thanks to Napier funding, more than 20 adults in three rural communities (Millport, Auchtermuchty and Glencoe) of all levels, receive regular, accessible, bespoke group tuition, followed by a jam session, providing opportunities to learn an instrument for the first time, supports local music initiatives, a pathway for continuity for current players, and a space to make music with others in a supportive, local environment.
Participants have reported feeling less socially and psychologically isolated, an increased sense of purpose, wellbeing, self-confidence and skills, and even less frequent use of pain medication. As a result, participants have started their own music groups, such as Millport’s ‘Bothy Bowers’, and Auchtermuchty’s ‘Eden Session Players’ and ‘Glencoe Strings’.
In May 2025 a CIMSRS Symposium was held at the Craiglockhart campus, providing a platform for musicians from the Millport and Auchtermuchty groups and stakeholders from a number of organisations including Instrumental Music Services, Creative, MPEG, We Make Music Scotland, Lochgelly Musical Instrument Library (Fife Council), We Make Music Scotland, and even an MP from Fife.
This project sparked social cohesion on various levels, from family life, and community wide. The CIMSRS symposium, instigated discussion to widening support for this goal with stakeholders, participants, government officials, and instrumental music services, resulting in a trailblazing collaboration with Highlife Highland, and CIMSRS becoming a finalist for the Scottish Land and Estates ‘Helping it Happen Awards 2025’ in the ‘Working with Communities’ category (winners announced 1st October 2025).