The Bagpipe Society

How to Tune a Meh

The meh (or mih or mijeh)¹ is a bagpipe from the northern coast and islands of the Adriatic Sea. It is a double-chantered, droneless pipe, morphologically similar to bagpipes from North Africa, some Greek islands,

Anatolia, and Iran. What makes the meh something of a black sheep in this family is the curious asymmetrical layout of the finger-holes on its chanter. This layout causes the meh to play in a unique two-voiced melodic texture, slipping between unison pitches and striking, non-tempered parallel harmonies somewhere between major seconds and minor thirds.

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