The Scottish Highland Pipes are the most familiar of all Bagpipes, and amongst the most ancient, having been with us in their same basic form since the 13th century.
We’ve all heard the loud “skirl” of the Pipes at parades, Highland Games, weddings, memorial services and wild St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. They owe their current level of popularity to the Highland Regiments of the British army, who deployed their pipe-bands world wide with the rise of the British Empire, and continue that tradition to this day.

Modern Highland Pipes are composed of a leather bag, to which are tied the three drone-pipes (from whence the underlying tone or drone emanates), the chanter (upon which the melody is played) and a blow-stick, thru which the piper’s hot air is supplied to the whole business. The instrument has a range of nine notes and is pitched in
B-flat, which makes it easy to play along with other loud things, like brass bands.

The Irish Uilleann (il-len) Pipes are a much more recent invention than the Highland pipes, having been around for but a mere two hundred and fifty years or so. The Uilleann pipes possess a more sonorous and dulcet tone, thus lending them to being played indoors in polite society, yet they can be delightfully lively, inducing toes to tap and feet to dance at a moments notice.

The Uilleann piper is always seated while playing the instrument, inflating the bag positioned under his left arm through a flexible tube from a leather bellows strapped to his right elbow (Uilleann translates as “elbow” in Irish Gaelic). The drones are draped over the piper’s lap, and the bottom end of the chanter rests on the piper’s right knee. On a “full set” of pipes, three pipes covered with keys, known as “regulators” are mounted along side the drones. The piper depresses the appropriate combination of these keys with his wrist or forearm whilst playing the chanter, thus providing a chordal and at times rhythmic accompaniment to the melody.

Whew! –It sometimes makes my head spin just thinking of all the machinations involved, and I actually play the darn thing! The most common key for this instrument is concert “D”, however “Low Pipes” are made in C-sharp, C, B and B flat.

The Whistle and Flute are most ancient of all wind instruments, having been with us since the Dawn of Time. I often imagine some ancient Irishman, at his labour of erecting stone house or tending his fields, pausing for his mid-day meal and a tune on his whistle made of bone or river-cane.

As with many things that have stood the test of time, both whistle and flute are simple instruments, each having six holes fingered in a scale from bottom to top, twice over for a two-octave range. Modern whistles are made of metal, wood or even plastic, while the modern Irish “Blackwood” flute is made of a tropical hardwood such as grenidilla, cocus or ebony. The modern flute will frequently be outfitted with a number of metal keys, which allow sharps and flats to be played that are accidental to the basic “D” scale. Like the Uilleann Pipes, most flutes and whistles are pitched in D, though whistles are available from various makers pitched in all twelve keys.