Composing for the Great Highland Bagpipe, Episode 1: Intro to the Nuances of the Bagpipe

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

The Bagpipe is a Transposing instrument so it speaks a Half Step Higher than written. But they make Non Transposing Bagpipes at 440 HZ so they have a bit mellower sound.

[@martialpanyvino]

Thanks for this very informative video on the Bagpipes, i learnt many valuable things about the instrument ! :) I have one question however, since i want to compose idiomatic music for this instrument : is it possible to play only the drones, and not the chanter for a while, and later on to play the drones plus the chanter ? I suspect this to be impossible, since i believe the chanter will produce a note "by default". Then would it be possible to mute it ? Or to take it off and later on "plug" it back in the instrument ? Excuse me for the clumsy english, i am french, so it's hard on such specific subjetcs... Thanks again, have a nice day :)

[@JordanAlexanderKey]

Thanks for watching and responding. Yes, a bagpiper can maintain the drones without the chanter playing. There are some considerations for this. 1) If the bagpiper is playing a very easy reed (as in the case with very elderly pipers or with novice pipers) it will be difficult to not have the chanter accidentally sound while the drone are playing. 2) the drones might not be as weel in tune at the lower air pressure require to both have the drone sound and the chanter not sound. However, there might be no intonation problems. 3) This is easier to accomplish on the Great Highland Bagpipe (the larger, very loud one). This is very difficult to do on the smaller types of pipes (Parlor Pipes, Smallpipes, Borderpipes, Reel pipes, etc.). The drones and chanter can be muted. However, it is impossible to unmute the chanter while playing; the bagpiper would have to stop and take apart the instrument to an extent to unmute the chanter. Drones can be muted with the hands and unmuted in a similar way; however, the hands are needed. So, either an additional person must stand behind the piper to mute and unmute their drones or the piper needs use of their hands to mute and unmute. In the case of the chanter not sounding, the piper would then have their hands free to manipulate the dones (tuning or muting/unmuting). Does this all make sense? Let me know if you have further questions. When I have some more time, I do plan on making more detailed videos about each part of the bagpipe.

[@martialpanyvino]

@@JordanAlexanderKey Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer me ! It all makes perfect sense and it helps me a lot :) I find it odd that no videos are out there yet to explain such things, or to describe which contemporary techniques could be experimented on the bagpipes (i find the chorus-y effect achieved by detuning one of the drones while playing only the other ones and not the chanter very interesting) I had to watch tutorials about how one would tune the chanter and the drones to get some of the information you gave me ! Anyways, thanks again, have a nice day or evening :)