The Bagpipe Society

More in Common than you would think!

In 2014 I had the opportunity to borrow a set of Swayne G pipes from a friend. Initially I expected it to be difficult to pick up. My main experience was playing the Italian transverse ocarina, an instrument that, on the surface, could appear completely unrelated. Yet I quickly realised that many similarities exist, similarities that allowed me to pick up the basics of the bagpipes quite easily.

To give a quick introduction, ocarinas are wind instruments that produce sound using the resonance of a hollow chamber, instead of a tube. This gives them a very distinctive timbre, often described as haunting or ethereal. The term ‘ocarina’ is very loose in its meaning, encompassing novelty sculptures that produce only one or two notes, to concert quality musical instruments. I play Italian transverse ocarinas, a design developed in Budrio in the 19th century.

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