# Bagpipes and Amazing Grace **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267 "2016-03-17T15:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/21 "2016-03-17T18:40:54Z")
A certain doper seems conspicuously absent from this thread! If only we had someone from a **Northern** climate who happened to also be a **Piper**! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/22 "2016-03-17T19:05:16Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > That is because Amazing Grace and Gilligan’s Island are both in Ballad Meter, a very common poetic and musical meter. So-called “Common Meter” is a subset of Ballad Meter. > > Here are some of the many lyrics that fit Ballad Meter: > > The Australian National Anthem > Auld Lang Syne > Most of the poetry of Emily Dickenson > O Little Town of Bethlehem > Joy to the World > Many other Christmas carols > Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven > The House of the Rising Sun > > Now, to blow your mind, here’s [Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO2px91IheQ). The one, the only, the legend that is… [Stairway to Gilligan’s Island](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCYLbFxTpI). ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/23 "2016-03-17T19:57:08Z")
> [@Seren359](#): > > I always thought it was “Scotland the brave” or “Flowers of the forest” > Perhaps yours is an American thing? I’m an American, and [Scotland the Brave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBKBI7DOLHA) has always been “the bagpipe song” as far as I was concerned. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/24 "2016-03-17T20:13:27Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I’m an American, and [Scotland the Brave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBKBI7DOLHA) has always been “the bagpipe song” as far as I was concerned. Same here. If you asked me, name a song played on the bagpipes, that would be my number one answer. If you asked me, name another, it’d be “Amazing Grace.” And then, I’m out of bagpipe song names. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/25 "2016-03-17T20:23:39Z")
My mother was a piper and her group was kept quite busy performing Amazing Grace at funerals. Usually a lone piper was used, sometimes 2 or 3. She also played a lot of weddings. It was very common to have pipes at a Scots or Irish wedding. Other well known songs pipers get asked to play include “Danny Boy”, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (that’s fairly common if pipes are used at a non-Christian LEO funeral), “Irish Washerwoman”, “Auld Lang Syne”, “Flowers of the Forest” (used at military funerals), and lots of miscellaneous bits of Scots and Irish folk music which use the same scale available to pipes. Interesting factoid: One of the reasons you so seldom see pipes played in a group with other more traditional instruments is that you can only really tell what key you are playing in when you get to the end of the piece you are playing and construct your final chord. Very much a Scots instrument - quite contrary. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/26 "2016-03-17T20:53:18Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Now, to blow your mind, here’s [Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO2px91IheQ). The 2nd movement of Brahms’ Deutches Requiem also maps rather nicely to House of the Rising Sun. Or, better yet, vice versa. _There is… a house… in New… Orleans…_ ---
**Author:** ![Tully\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@Tully\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tully_Mars)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/27 "2016-03-17T21:44:33Z")
My wife once had the privilege of having “Happy Birthday” played on the pipes for her on her birthday - by a naked man (except for the pipes) on a beach in Jamaica. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/28 "2016-03-17T22:29:15Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Is there any reason 99 times out of 100 times that I hear bagpipes being played, Amazing Grace is the song? Well… back when the spouse and I played the pipes I’d say 9 out of 10 requests was for Amazing Grace. I’m sure there’s no connection…:rolleyes: > [@Seren359](#): > > I always thought it was “Scotland the brave” or “Flowers of the forest” > Perhaps yours is an American thing? Yep - It’s an American thing. Amazing Grace is known elsewhere but not as played to death. > [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > It seems like some of this has been covered on the Straight Dope. Amazing Grace is a popular American hymn, especially at funerals. It was often played at police funerals on uilleann pipes because so many American policemen were Irish. At some point, a switch to bagpipes was made because they are louder than uilleann pipes. [nitpick]The uilleann pipes _are_ bagpipes. But the highland variety is an eff of a lot easier to carry down the street in a parade, or in a funeral procession.[/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/29 "2016-03-17T23:05:56Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Specifically, highland pipes play a pentatonic scale - the first, second, third, fifth and sixth of a major scale. IIRC, they play 9 notes - almost a 2 octave range. Google about for “pentatonic melodies”. “Stairway to Heaven” for instance. They don’t play a pentatonic scale (although they can); it’s a sort of out-of-tune Mixolydian. It has nine notes from a “G” to the “A” an ninth above. (In quotes because the G is really more like an A-flat and the A is more like a B-flat, except they’re also not really those either. But they’re called G and A.) ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/30 "2016-03-17T23:27:40Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I got 99 problems and a bagpipe is every single one of them. BOOM! Lcve it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/31 "2016-03-18T01:10:46Z")
those of you hating on the pipes, what in blue blazes is wrong with you people?!?! The Bagpipes are awesome, they can weep, sing, rock and roll, rhythm the blues right out of the heck!, sigh… _Martha, we went wrong somewhere back there, kids these days, there’s just something not right about them_ Amazing Grace was (perhaps unwittingly) was written just for the Pipes. However, I too have grown weary of hearing it. Marches now, well now there ya have something. I love me some military marches played on the pipes.🆒 Unfortunately the wife is also tragically unenlightened and so my listening enjoyment of the bagpipes is sharply curtailed.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/32 "2016-03-18T01:20:55Z")
The bagpipes I heard today played a bunch of songs I recognized, including “The Bonny Lass of Fyvie-O”, all four armed forces themes, “God Bless America”, and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, and I think “The Minstrel Boy” might have been in there too, but no “Amazing Grace”. And the last time I saw a link to YouTube labeled “Awesome bagpipe performance”, or something to that effect, it was [AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgzZLNwqvdQ). And on the topic of ballad meter, for the longest time I had “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” stuck in my head… to the tune of “Stairway to Heaven”. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/33 "2016-03-18T02:18:47Z")
I like the bagpipes, but playing “Amazing Grace” on them has become a huge cliche over the past 20 years or so. I have to admit I roll my eyes when I hear it nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/34 "2016-03-18T02:46:23Z")
> [@guestchaz](#): > > those of you hating on the pipes, > > what in blue blazes is wrong with you people?!?! What do you throw a drowning bagpipes player? His bagpipes. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/35 "2016-03-18T03:29:29Z")
I never thought Amazing Grace was especially appropriate for a funeral. I assumed it was chosen because its the most likely hymn non-church goers have heard of. And the link to the pipes was formed by the recording mentioned in #4. I’m not sure I ever heard them together before that record. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/36 "2016-03-18T03:57:33Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Next time you hear “Amazing Grace” just insert the lyrics from the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song into the music, and sing along. They fit perfectly. Makes it much more tolerable to sit thru yet another rendition of it. > > AG lyrics into GI music works great too. Try it at home! Or check it out on youtube. I’m going to do this. I can’t stand “Amazing Grace” and it’s torture on bagpipes. But I do like Bagpipes. My fave is the theme from the Magnificent Seven. There are several versions but [give this one a try](https://youtu.be/PIWWfJyBYFI). ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/37 "2016-03-18T04:09:19Z")
That’s Scotland the Brave, with a little Loch Loman thrown in. Magnificent Seven is a movie, right? ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/38 "2016-03-18T04:20:53Z")
Correct you are svd678. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/39 "2016-03-18T12:47:32Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > [Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO2px91IheQ). The youth group at the church I went to while I was in high school used to sing that all the time. My suggestion that we sing “House of the Rising Sun” to the tune of “Amazing Grace” was met with laughter. My favourite combinarion is singing “The Marines’ Hymn” to “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/40 "2016-03-18T12:56:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The bagpipes I heard today played a bunch of songs I recognized, including “The Bonny Lass of Fyvie-O”, all four armed forces themes, “God Bless America”, and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, and I think “The Minstrel Boy” might have been in there too, but no “Amazing Grace”. And the last time I saw a link to YouTube labeled “Awesome bagpipe performance”, or something to that effect, it was [AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgzZLNwqvdQ). I went to a concert by the Black Watch pipes & drums\* when they toured the US with the Royal Marines band in 1976. One of the songs they played was “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” And I used to have a tape by some US police department pipe band playing the theme from _Dallas_. - The only group I’ve been to more than one concert of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267.md?page=3)