The Bagpipe Society

What is a Smallpipe?

Dear Jane,

I wonder if I might tempt you to write a general article on the categories of kinds of smallpipes and their differences. The reason I ask this is because I am learning the chanter/pipes and, because I live in a townhouse, buying a set of Great Highland pipes is not an option for me at this stage. I do want to be able to move on to them someday so I personally want standard hole spacing on a smallpipes chanter and in key of A etc. It has taken me a good 6-8 months to actually figure out what my options are, as the variety of small pipes is so bewildering. It was only near the end of my research that I realised that the majority of small pipes are tuned an octave lower than the Great Highland pipes. The reel pipes seem to be the only pipes that have the higher tuning, although it is almost impossible to get some without a common stock (FYI, I finally found that lovely Fred Morrison would make reel pipes with individual drones). So, I only mention the idea of a possible general smallpipes article as I had such trouble sorting out the smallpipes quagmire.
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