Search the Community

I've just been messing about with a tune in ABC which is actually scored for the Highland Bagpipe (K:Hp). It (seems to) play fine on the 'tina, because as far as I can see, the C#, F# and Gnat which appear in the Hp key signature just correspond to the C# and F# which are the 'accidentals' in the key of D. In fact, if I transpose down, and then up a couple of semi-tones in my ABC editor, the key magically converts itself from Hp to D... So, in terms of notation, what's the difference between the Highland pipes key, and the key of D? Is this 'inconsistency' simply down to the fact that the ABC system isn't man enough to cope with this sort of musical subtlety? In an attempt to find out for myself, I had a look at this - http://publish.uwo.ca/~emacphe3/pipes/acoustics/pipescale.html and came away not much wiser, I'm afraid... . In particular, the passage: ...This is because the size of the steps between some notes are incorrect. The note we call 'C' is really closer to 'C#' and the note named 'F' is really closer to 'F#'... left me somewhat bemused - putting aside the fact that we don't really know what incorrect means in this context, does this mean that strictly speaking, I can't play any bagpipe tune on the 'tina 'cos the intervals are different? As I understood what I was reading, this isn't just an example of a modal scale in which the intervals between notes are arranged differently to the 'standard' major key (Ionian), but a situation in which the intervals between notes are actually different to the standard tone/semi-tone intervals. Puzzled... Roger