James and Kylie MacHattie are both bagpipe instructors with the College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada in Summerside, PEI. James and Kylie both play the Scottish Highland Bagpipes. In these videos, James and Kylie perform different examples of bagpipe tunes, share an example of Highland Fling dance, teach us some basic dance steps and invite us to take a closer look at the bagpipes and the traditional clothing they are wearing.

The piece James performs for us is called “Orange and Blue,” and it’s a strathspey. Strathspeys are in simple time, have four beats in the bar and are at a slower pace than the livelier jigs and reels dance tunes. Strathspeys can also feature a rhythm called the “Scotch Snap,” which is when a short, accented note is followed by a longer one. 

Kylie performs “Scotland the Brave,” which is a march. Marches were originally composed for marching to and have two or four beats to the bar and a strong steady pulse. 

The dance that Kylie teaches is called the Highland Fling, which was originally a “war dance” and is sometimes danced over a sword! In these videos she performs it to “Orange and Blue,” played by James.

James and Kylie provided the following background information & introduction to the Highland Bagpipes:

The Great Highland Bagpipe is the national instrument of Scotland. Bagpipes in various forms have been around for thousands of years, but we know that the Great Highland Bagpipe was actively being played and taught in Scotland 700 years ago. We still have music that was written then and is still played today.

In the 1400s, the MacCrimmon family started a school of piping on the Island of Skye in Scotland. Today, there is a College of Piping in Summerside, PEI, still dedicated to teaching kids and grown ups to play bagpipes. James and Kylie, who are working on this project, teach piping there, and can trace the lineage of their instructors back 700 years to the MacCrimmon family.

Bagpipes used to be played by themselves, but in the 1800s pipe bands (bagpipes and drums) started in the British military. The bagpipes had been considered to be an instrument of war, since the Scottish clans would charge against their English opponents to the music of bagpipes. But really, bagpipes were used for social occasions mostly. The English people recognized the power of bagpipes in making people feel very strong emotions, and added pipe bands to their military regiments when Scotland and England were united.

At one point, when Scotland and England were still fighting, bagpipes became outlawed. It was illegal to play bagpipes! It was also illegal to wear the kilt, which is another emblem of Scotland. They are similar to skirts, but were considered very "manly". They are colourful, made of tartan material, and tartans represent clans, or families.

Bagpipers play traditional Scottish music: marches, strathspeys, reels, jigs, hornpipes, airs, and piobaireachd (PEE-brock).

Bagpipes have five tubes, four reeds, and a bag. The piper blows up the bag through the blowpipe, and then alternating blowing and squeezing at high pressure, the other four pipes make music when tuned properly. The three tubes over the shoulder are drones, and they play a low hum. The fingers go on the chanter, where the melody comes from. The reed in the chanter is a double reed, like an oboe or a bassoon. There are all sorts of tricky fingerings that pipers use to separate notes since we cannot use our tongues and we play continuous.

Bagpipes can be performed in many places, but the most common are parades, concert halls, and in competition. In competition we usually play outside, in either sun or rain. We travel all over the place, and definitely Scotland. The College of Piping Pipe Bands compete at the World Championships every few years, and our Grade 4 band won the World Championships in their grade in 2017! 

The Basics | Extension Activities | About James and Kylie