A Highland Perthshire music initiative to give traditional musicians a virtual stage is preparing to launch its first tunebook next month.
Tunes in The Hoose (TitH) was kickstarted by Pitlochry pair Martin MacLeod Jr and Sr in spring, when hundreds of Scottish traditional musicians had their gigs cancelled.
Martin Sr, who played in folk band Capercaillie in the 1980s, asked his son, professional film-maker Martin Jr, if he could stitch together video of him playing with footage of friend and accordionist Peter Wood, who was self-isolating in Shetland.
The digital ceilidh band has grown and since the first recording, has featured more than 850 musicians from more than 75 countries performing Caledonian classics.
Their episodes, edited by Martin Jr, have racked up more than 2.5 million views online and have been nominated for the Community Project of the Year in the prestigious 2020 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.
The father and son team plan to launch their first tune book in time for Christmas, having been awarded Creative Scotland funding to help enhance the appeal of Scottish music to the world market and allow contributors to continue promoting their work.
Due to be printed and available to buy in early December, the book will contain sheet music written by ear by Martin Sr and will feature track-and-trace inspired QR codes linking to the TitH episode online which featured that song, along with comments left by the international array of artists.
With contributors hailing from New Zealand to India and China to Canada, each book will contain as many as 250 arrangements.
Martin Jr said: “We thought it might drop off when things started to get back to normal and it plateaued a bit but it’s picking up again.
“Over the summer, we’ve been working on the tunebook. Dad’s listened to 100 episodes and written the music from ear.
“It’s got comments from lots of people who have been involved and that’s testament to our journey.
“We wanted to make traditional music as accessible as possible and it’s all there online. On each page, you’ll be able to scan the code and listen to the TitH edition.
“I’m not a musician. I’ve got an appreciation for traditional music but this has really opened my eyes.
“The Scottish Trad scene is more alive than ever. I thought it could fizzle out over lockdown, but this has shown what a hunger there is for it. Ultimately, we want musicians to be able to get by until they can put on shows again.”
The tunebook will be available online and all proceeds will go towards the project.
