pipetunes.ca becomes world’s largest library of free piping audio: almost 1,400 tunes

The online pipe music property pipetunes.ca is making its entire library of more than 1,300 “demonstration” MP3 files available for free download, extending the previous 20-second excerpts of each tune to the full rendition. The move makes the site the world’s largest repository of free audio files of complete pipe music.

Most of the full-length tunes are played by Jim McGillivray, proprietor of pipetunes.ca, who performs each using mainly a DegerPipe, with a few hundred of the earlier files played on practice chanter. Some demonstration files are performed by composers of original tunes carried on the site.

McGillivray had offered the truncated files as previews for those considering purchasing the manuscript of a tune carried on pipetunes.ca.

“I think it’s a better service to offer to my sheet-music clientele,” McGillvray said. “It’s much better when you’re deciding what tunes to learn if you can hear the whole thing. Many times the best parts of a tune may be latter parts, so it better mirrors the ‘book’ experience where you get to look and sing through and try the whole tune before you commit to learning it.”

McGillivray launched pipetunes.ca in 2007 and has added to the property steadily since then. The site works using a credits system, with users purchasing credits online.