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| PM Willie Lawrie, undated |
I stood nervously. “Hi. My name is John and I’m a pipe music junkie”; group response: “Hi John.” With that I opened the 1st meeting of Piping Music Anonymous, Silicon Valley Chapter (PMASV for short). All kidding aside, I have noticed that most pipers love new pipe music. I do. I listen to my fair share of pipe music on-line, on Pandora, on Youtube.com, on iTunes of my own MP3’s and even CD’s in my car. I have more music than I could ever play in books such as Scots Guards Vol. 1 & 2, W. Ross Collection(s), Irish pipe music, Scottish dance tunes, folders and binders of copied music given to me and a fair number of PDF’s. A few weeks ago at pipe band practice I heard a fellow piper playing 'From Maui to Kona' by Bob Worrall. Very catchy tune when played well and at tempo. And I wanted the sheet music; no… I needed the sheet music. So where do you find new music?
In year’s past, I would have fired up my laptop, opened Google.com (or your favorite flavor of search engine) and spent time searching by name (alternate name, composer, composer’s mother’s maiden name, etc.) for a PDF, gif or BMW of the tune. If the tune was a bit obscure, I might get a hit on Bob Dunshire’s forum site finding a discussion that might give me clues on where to find that elusive tune. Occasionally, I’d find a band’s unlocked web site music page with their current play list available in PDF format with my sought after tune included. They don’t call it data (err… tune) mining for nothing. A lot of digging and an occasional gold nugget (of music). I still resort to this process on occasion but with the advent of reliable tune sites, I do it less and less.
Today, I initially visit a couple of sites that publish pipe tunes. My current favorites are:
http://pipetunes.ca/ – Jim McGillivray’s site. One becomes a member, login and buys credits for future tune PDF and mp3 purchases, downloading as you go. Great resource.
http://www.leeandsonsbagpipes.com/ - Jack Lee’s site. Purchase tunes PDF and mp3 as you go with a link to the download emailed to you. Wonderful site.
Coming back to “From Maui to Kona”. My first thought was to go to McGillivray’s site, hoping to download a copy, paying as I go. The composer gets paid a little and the site gets paid a little. And no worries for me about copyright issues. I didn't find the tune there so went to Jack Lee's site where I’ve purchased tunes before as well. Didn't find it there either. I even went online to Ebay.com, then Amazon.com, to see if Worrall’s book was for sale by private party as his book is out of print. No luck there. Like many pipers, we are a determined lot, so I went searching the internet for that elusive PDF. Early one Saturday morning, while the household slept, I made coffee and settled down for a pleasant hour’s search. Going down more than a few rabbit trails, I eventually found a PDF scan of the tune from the original book (I believe). Sorry Bob, I really wanted your book, chuck full of new tunes.
There is also a mountain of public domain tunes. No need to purchase that, right? Technically there is no need to purchase. But the format of the music if you find it may not be neat and clean. Go looking for some of the classic piobaireachd and you may find a copy of a copy of a page typeset and printed in the 1800’s that looks like it was faxed in the early 1900’s. This week, I went looking for classic WWI tune: The Battle of the Somme by William Lawrie and found a copy on pipetunes.ca and a copy as a gif on another site. I decided to spend the few credits with pipetunes.ca and downloaded a beautifully set PDF of the public domain tune as well as an mp3 of the tune to work with. Money well spent.
Starving bagpiper’s aside, paying for tunes is the right thing to do. A composer works hard to create music that is both fun to play and enjoyable to listen to. He (or she) deserves royalties for their intellectual property. It also take guts to publish a book of tunes, yet thankfully some pipers continue to compose. Hardcopy tune books are fun to browse and play through on chanter or even pencil (it just helps to finger a tune as you sight). Maybe soon we will be able to buy a tune book (besides in pdf format) for example College of Piping: Highland Bagpipe Tutor Pioaireached in a form that can be formatted for viewing on and played straight from the iPad or Surface. I think I’ll go in search to see what progressive bagpipe composers are doing.
I might even find a tune I just have to have.
In year’s past, I would have fired up my laptop, opened Google.com (or your favorite flavor of search engine) and spent time searching by name (alternate name, composer, composer’s mother’s maiden name, etc.) for a PDF, gif or BMW of the tune. If the tune was a bit obscure, I might get a hit on Bob Dunshire’s forum site finding a discussion that might give me clues on where to find that elusive tune. Occasionally, I’d find a band’s unlocked web site music page with their current play list available in PDF format with my sought after tune included. They don’t call it data (err… tune) mining for nothing. A lot of digging and an occasional gold nugget (of music). I still resort to this process on occasion but with the advent of reliable tune sites, I do it less and less.
Today, I initially visit a couple of sites that publish pipe tunes. My current favorites are:
http://pipetunes.ca/ – Jim McGillivray’s site. One becomes a member, login and buys credits for future tune PDF and mp3 purchases, downloading as you go. Great resource.
http://www.leeandsonsbagpipes.com/ - Jack Lee’s site. Purchase tunes PDF and mp3 as you go with a link to the download emailed to you. Wonderful site.
Coming back to “From Maui to Kona”. My first thought was to go to McGillivray’s site, hoping to download a copy, paying as I go. The composer gets paid a little and the site gets paid a little. And no worries for me about copyright issues. I didn't find the tune there so went to Jack Lee's site where I’ve purchased tunes before as well. Didn't find it there either. I even went online to Ebay.com, then Amazon.com, to see if Worrall’s book was for sale by private party as his book is out of print. No luck there. Like many pipers, we are a determined lot, so I went searching the internet for that elusive PDF. Early one Saturday morning, while the household slept, I made coffee and settled down for a pleasant hour’s search. Going down more than a few rabbit trails, I eventually found a PDF scan of the tune from the original book (I believe). Sorry Bob, I really wanted your book, chuck full of new tunes.
There is also a mountain of public domain tunes. No need to purchase that, right? Technically there is no need to purchase. But the format of the music if you find it may not be neat and clean. Go looking for some of the classic piobaireachd and you may find a copy of a copy of a page typeset and printed in the 1800’s that looks like it was faxed in the early 1900’s. This week, I went looking for classic WWI tune: The Battle of the Somme by William Lawrie and found a copy on pipetunes.ca and a copy as a gif on another site. I decided to spend the few credits with pipetunes.ca and downloaded a beautifully set PDF of the public domain tune as well as an mp3 of the tune to work with. Money well spent.
Starving bagpiper’s aside, paying for tunes is the right thing to do. A composer works hard to create music that is both fun to play and enjoyable to listen to. He (or she) deserves royalties for their intellectual property. It also take guts to publish a book of tunes, yet thankfully some pipers continue to compose. Hardcopy tune books are fun to browse and play through on chanter or even pencil (it just helps to finger a tune as you sight). Maybe soon we will be able to buy a tune book (besides in pdf format) for example College of Piping: Highland Bagpipe Tutor Pioaireached in a form that can be formatted for viewing on and played straight from the iPad or Surface. I think I’ll go in search to see what progressive bagpipe composers are doing.
I might even find a tune I just have to have.
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