By David Tinsley | Senior Member
My name is David and I play the Great Highland Bagpipes. There, that is the confession out of the way.
My intent in this article is to share my love of pipes, and hopefully convince you that they are a serious musical instrument. The Great Highland Bagpipes are what most people envisage when they think of pipes, but there are a number of variations—the European Gaida and Irish Uilleann to name but two. Pipes are an ancient instrument and history suggests that they originated in the Middle East and evolved as they moved through Europe and North Africa. The Great Highland Bagpipes are the most recognized, in part because the British army and Scottish emigrants took them with them as they settled abroad.
Why do I play them? For a number of reasons, from the relaxation of playing a long lamenting solo on a summer’s evening, to the incredible neck-hair-raising high of stepping out with a full corps of pipes and drums at a highland games, through to the sheer fear of competing in front of a world-renowned player as he judges my performance! No other instrument stirs as much emotion as the pipes and I get a lot of satisfaction from being part of that. Who can honestly say they are unmoved when they hear a lament on Remembrance Day, or see and hear a full band marching toward them on parade?
The pipe music that most people are familiar with is known as light music; marches, strathspeys, jigs, reels, etc. However, there is a form of pipe music known as piobaireachd, literally “piping,” that predates light music. Piobaireachd is truly beautiful; long complicated pieces that build on a theme with variations that can become hypnotic. I can close my eyes and listen to a 20-minute piobaireachd and feel I am reaching back through generations of pipers. If you ever visit highland games, hunt out the piobaireachd competition and you will see (and hear) what I mean.
So, how the heck do we make music? Pipes, no matter what style, all work on essentially the same principle. We have a bag that acts as a reservoir of air that we squeeze, forcing air over a set of reeds. The bag is filled with air by mouth, through a blow stick that is fitted with a one-way valve. The output pressure is regulated by squeezing the bag between elbow and body, keeping constant pressure over the reeds. We have four reeds: three drone reeds and a chanter reed. The chanter reed, on which we play the melody, is a double reed, two pieces of cane whipped together, similar to an oboe reed. The drone reeds are single reeds and were traditionally made of cane. Today most people use synthetic drone reeds, as they are less temperamental than cane. We have two tenor drones, tuned one octave below the low A on the chanter, and one bass drone, tuned two octaves below low A. The chanter only has a range of nine notes, from low G up to high A.
The drones are tuned by moving the drone top up or down, altering the size of the sound chamber and hence the pitch. The aim is to bring all three drones and chanter into tune on each of the nine chanter notes. The chanter is tuned by raising or lowering the reed in its seat and by adding electrical tape across the top of individual holes. High-tech we are not! A correctly tuned set of pipes does not sound like a cat being abused, it sounds rich, vibrant and in harmony.
Once we get the pipes playing, we have to overcome some unique challenges. We cannot vary the volume and we cannot stop (no matter how much you may want us to!). We use a complicated system of gracenotes and embellishments to separate two notes of the same value and to add the impression of varying volume. We cannot touch any of the reeds, so we cannot use embouchure to change tone. And then, just to add to the fun, we have reeds that change in pitch as the humidity and temperature changes. All in all, piping for me is a challenging but richly rewarding passion and one that I hope to enjoy for many years to come.
If you are interested, take a look at the band website (www.ferguspipeband.com) or feel free to drop me a line at tinsley.writer@gmail.com.
