How do you tune bagpipes?

Factual Questions
1

So, how do you?

Robin

2

Like this.

3

LMAO!

Tuning a bagpipe :rolleyes:

4

don’t jest at things ye don’t ken.

MsRobyn, the link that Darwin’s Finch gave is very detailed. If you have any follow-up questions, I can try to answer them.

5

To be honest my first thought was “they can be tuned”?

Are there different types of bag pipes like a tenor and an alto and a bass?

6

The reason that bagpipes tend to sound out of tune to most Western listeners is because they are not tuned to Equal Temperment, like most popular instruments (guitar, piano, etc.) Seconly, the scale outlined on the chanter of pipes is not a major scale. Rather, it has a flatted seventh, making it Mixolydian mode. Plus, tuning varies a bit from piper to piper. Most noticeable in bagpipe music is that the third is a bit flat, the fourth a bit sharp, the sixth a bit flat, and the flatted seventh is a bit sharp.

7

Thanks for the link, Darwin’s Finch.

This question came about because, at the end of our radio show, we play a bagpipe piece. Since none of us knows how to play the bagpipes, we didn’t know if it was a tunable instrument.

Now we know. :slight_smile:

Robin

8

To paraphrase Robert Fripp “tuning a bagpipe doesn’t”, he was actually discussing the Mellotron but it fits here.

Unclviny

9

There’s only one pitch for the Great Highland Bagpipe. By convention, the pitch is said to be A, but in reality it’s higher than Bb.

There are other types of bagpipes that have different pitches. For example, shuttle pipes are made in the pitch of A, while Scottish smallpipes are available in A, Bb, C and D. Border/Lowland pipes are available in G, A and Bb. Northumbrian smallpipes are available in F, G, and D. The Irish Uillenn pipes are available in concert pitch D and flat pitch C natural and B natural.