Piper scores with music app

A PIPING enthusiast in Edinburgh hopes to trigger a new wave of interest in Scotland’s national instrument after developing the world’s first mobile phone app to help learn tunes.

Scores for more than 100 traditional pieces have been added to the initial “Pipefest app”, which has been sold all over the world since being launched online last week.

Its creator, Magnus Orr, hopes the venture will lead to a revival of interest in many old tunes, as well as help spread interest in playing the pipes, particularly overseas.

He has previously staged mass piping parades in New York, Paris and Rome, as well as three huge charity fundraisers in Edinburgh.

The Pipefest app, which features piping and drumming tunes which have fallen out of copyright, allows the user to download the sheet music onto their smart phone or tablet device.

Orr said: “I’ve done a lot of research on this and although there was an app showing you how to play the pipes there were none where you could download the actual sheet music.

“Pipers generally still have to go through books of old tunes to try to learn them, which can be a bit laborious trying to track them down, so this is a pretty exciting development.

“There’s been huge interest since we launched this last week and apps have already been sold to people in the US, Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Australia.”