No other musical instrument looks or sounds like a bagpipe. When it is played, a queer drone serves as a background for the tune.
The term bagpipe is equally correct in the singular or plural, although in the English language, pipers most commonly talk of "pipes."
The bagpipe gets its name because a bag filled with air furnishes air for the pipes that make the sound.
The most common method of supplying air to the bag is by blowing into a blowpipe, or blowstick.
The bagpipe is a very old instrument. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all had it. Today the bagpipe is thought of as the instrument of the Scotch Highlanders.
An innovation, dating from the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, is the use of a bellows to supply air.
A Highland bagpipe has five tubes. The player blows into the bag through one. He plays the tune on another. The other three tubes make the droning sound.
Bagpipes initially provided music for dancing in most cultures.
