Bagpipe Tuning

There are several pages out there that go into great detail about tuning the Great Highland Bagpipes. The real trick, for me, is making sure that the chanter is in tune. I am not blessed with perfect pitch and it can be difficult to do this by ear. On top of that, my instructor doesn’t want to spend all lesson going over the tape on my chanter and fiddling with the reed. The whole band has been given a directive: show up to practice with your chanter in tune at band pitch so we spend a little time getting our drones set and can spend most of our time playing. We use a 449 A and tune to B-flat. Our scale is thus: