How to Go Up & Down on the Bagpipe Scales

Video Transcript

"NEIL HUBBARD: Now we're going to go through the scale, the basic nine notes that you can play on a bagpipe. This finger position with all the holes covered and you can feel the holes under your hands and just sort of move your fingers back and forth so that you can tell that they're all covered, this is low G. Lift the little finger on the right hand and you've got Low A. The next finger creates B. To play the C, you drop the little finger and open the next finger up, so those two holes are open. D is simply lifting the right index finger. Next, you're crossing to the left hand and you're closing the right hand this way and you've got E here. Next note up is F then G; high A is lifting the thumb off the back and putting your ring finger down over the E hole. So, that's your basic scale. It's important to accurately close the fingers and open the fingers at the right time so you don't get what are called "crossing noises" transitioning between, say, a right hand note and a left hand note. So, I'm going to play up the scale."