Scottish musicBagpipes

The musical instrument most associated with Scotland is the Highland bagpipe. The Highland bagpipe has three drones which produce a continuous sound and a chanter with nine holes for playing the tune.

The Highland bagpipes can be heard all over the world, particularly in countries that were part of the British Empire, such as Canada and New Zealand.

Although the Highland bagpipe is the most common type of bagpipe found in English speaking countries, there are many other types of bagpipe found all over the world. Some have been in existence for over a thousand years.

Music played on the bagpipes can be split into two categories:

• ceòl beag
• ceòl mór

Ceòl beag

Ceòl beag is the Gaelic term for ‘light music’ which includes styles like march, strathspey, reel, waltz and jig. This type of music is frequently used to accompany dancing.

Ceòl mór

The contrasting style ceòl mór, translated as ‘big music’, is also known as pibroch. This sounds very slow in comparison and is generally played by a solo piper.

In this video folk group Breabach perform their version of the pibroch tune ‘I am Proud to Play A Pipe."

Pibroch takes the form of theme and variations - the main melody is repeated several times with elaborate variations. The melody is decorated with grace notes - these are short, crushed notes played immediately before the main note of the melody.