Tunes in the Hoose project unites musicians from around the world

A traditional Scottish music project orchestrated by a Pitlochry father and son has united hundreds of housebound musicians from more than 65 countries.

Martin Macleod Junior and Senior launched the Tunes in the Hoose project when lockdown measures were first imposed as a bid to unite dad Martin and his friend Peter Wood, who were self-isolating in Shetland.

Professional film-maker Martin Jr stitched footage of accordionist Peter and fiddle player Martin Sr performing in their own homes together and in doing so, created the first Tunes in the Hoose episode.

Quickly realising musicians across Scotland and beyond would be missing out on valuable gigs, Martin Jr realised there could be interest in a window for traditional musicians to perform together to an international audience, so created social media pages.

And over the last six weeks, the traditional Scots music Martin Sr played during his time performing with folk band Capercaillie in the 1980s has drawn in participants from every corner of every continent.

So far, Tunes in the Hoose’s 207 productions have featured 624 musical contributors and racked up well over a million views online. The project has kept editor Martin, who returned from Glasgow to Highland Perthshire last month, very busy.

Martin Jr said: “The week before lockdown, my dad and his friend in Shetland played together and he said I should stitch them together. It turned out pretty well.

“At this time, there are limited opportunities for musicians to share their talents to an engaged, worldwide audience and little opportunity for audiences to see live music in this way. Tunes in the Hoose changes all of that.

“It’s a real collage project. We realised there would be Scots in every corner of the world, but we’ve got loads of people who just have an interest in Scottish music, even from as far as China and India.

“It’s grown steadily and although we thought it would do well locally, none of us expected how well-received it’s been.”

Film-maker Martin Jr has had the arduous task of editing hundreds of videos recorded on smartphones.

With the launch of the TITH Tunebook, one-man editing machine Martin is hoping to be able to partially bankroll the project from the sheet music collection’s profits in order to keep the videos going.

Having already volunteered more than 500 hours of his time to the project, the 23-year-old is now looking for funders to help make the project sustainable in the long run.

He said: “It’s difficult to sustain as a voluntary project so I’ve applied for creative grants to cover the running costs.”