The Bagpipe

The bagpipe is the national instrument of Scotland. The earliest Scottish bagpipe dates from 1409 although similar instruments existed since ancient times. When the bagpipe is played, the sound issues from three wooded pipes containing reeds of fixed tone called drones, which furnish a continuous bass sound. Another reeded pipe of conical bone with holes in it, called the chanter which produces the melody is what the piper blows into. The range of the bagpipe is only nine notes, from G in treble clef to A above the clef. The piper usually walks back and forth while playing with the drones thrown over the shoulder and the bag tucked under the left arm, the blowpipe taken in the lips and the chanter held with the fingers.

In Scottish battles, the bagpipe served as a crucial tool for boosting morale, signaling commands, and intimidating the enemy. Pipers led troops into battle with inspiring and defiant music, a tradition that continued through World War I despite the extremely high casualty rate for pipers. The British government even classified the pipes as a "weapon of war" and banned them after the 1745 Jacobite uprising, but the tradition persisted in secret and later became a worldwide symbol of Scottish identity. The piper remains an important part of all Scottish functions