Charity
In recent years The Guitar Social has raised over seventy thousand pounds for the purchase of instruments and delivery of music programmes for adults facing barriers to learning. We have done this through setting a Guinness World Record for the world's longest guitar class, through the support of the people that have booked courses with us, through our work with corporate sponsors, through stunts and through funnelling our own money into causes that we think are worthwhile.
Here's just some of the work we have carried out.
RNIB- What we did
The Guitar Social has created a way to teach guitar to people living with sight loss. We do this by making guitars more tactile, changing our use of language in class and creating and distributing audio resources. After running several successful courses in London, we set out to bring our way of learning to a national audience. In order to do this, we needed cash, so, working with Guinness World Records, we hosted the world's longest ever guitar class. With hundreds of people in attendance, Thomas, director of The Guitar Social, delivered a non-stop guitar class for twenty-four hours and six minutes.
We used the money raised to install volunteer tutors across the UK and distributed hundreds of instruments. Thomas has the world record certificate installed with pride above his bathroom door.
Our work with the partially sighted and blind community remains one of the things we are most proud of and, as of 2027, we are in talks to launch new programmes, redoing all that good work.
Stevie Wonder was one of many famous faces that got behind our successful world record attempt
Fundraising at the big british castle
Meet Mary, our most mature learner ever, and perhaps our best. Mary was in our first class at the RNIB, she is also the inspiration behind our efforts to bring blind and partially sighted guitar tuition to a nation wide audience.
SHP-what we did
In 2026 we returned to SHP, having first worked with them close to ten years ago. SHP supports people who are either experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness for a broad range of reasons, including ill mental health, domestic violence and substance misuse, all underpinned by a growing lack of services and help available to people experiencing difficulties. Our work in 2026 took place at a homeless hostel in Westminster. Across 20 weeks, we worked with large groups of learners, leading to a live performance at The Drum Labs in Shoreditch.
In the spring of 2026, to raise the money needed to provide instruments for this project, Thomas, director of The Guitar Social, ran from his house in South East London to Wembley Stadium. Through the kindness of Guitar Social attendees, three thousand pounds was raised, enabling the purchase of twenty guitars and associated equipment. The Guitar Social has maintained its connection with SHP and continues to support their endeavours.
A short video telling the story of our work with homeless people in Westminster
London Youth – What we did
Central London and its nearest one or two zones, although underserved, still have some services that young people can access outside of school to aid learning and development. London zones four to seven are a different story altogether, where extracurricular options for those living in challenging situations become sparser and sparser the further out you travel. There are many reasons for this. One of them is simply that facilitators of creative services are less willing to travel late in the evening to the outskirts of London.
Always up for a challenge, and following our own remit to bring music education where there are the highest barriers to its delivery, we approached London Youth and told them we had some money to spend on young people's projects and asked them to send us out to the fringes. With our largest team of tutors ever set to work, we ran projects in Barnet and Croydon. One of our first sessions in Barnet landed very close to Christmas, so it was our pleasure to wrap up a whole load of guitars and give them away.
Giving out Guitars at Christmas
Shelter-what we did
The Guitar Social has gifted multiple instruments to Shelter, along with courses of significant duration. Our aim when working with clients who come into contact with an organisation is to provide a fun two-hour session that offers respite and community connection. In an often unforgiving week, we are aware that those attending our sessions are engaging in rare recreational and self-development time. Because of this, we dial up the fun, take the emphasis off practice and simply provide a place to do music.
One of our projects with Shelter resulted in a live performance where we were happy to provide transport, good food and an evening of live music.
Crossroads Women's Centre – what we did
When one of our voluntary tutors asked if they could deliver a course by themselves at Crossroads, we were delighted to offer our support. Crossroads works with women in need of support. This can include those fleeing domestic violence, recovering from substance misuse, ill mental health and other health-related issues, but its arm of help is not limited to those challenges alone.
Our role in this project was to provide instruments, learning resources and guidance to the tutors within the centre.
Our time working with Crossroads is representative of our willingness to collaborate with our partners and do whatever is needed to get music happening in challenging circumstances.
We loved delivering courses for people seeking asylum and migrants. Our classroom was made up of people who had to leave home because of war, persecution or incarceration. Our aim is to work with people facing barriers to learning, and this was strongly felt in a room full of different languages, physical and emotional needs and, at times, palpable trauma.
Some of our partners and sponsors
