Bagpipes have been important in almost every European and Middle Eastern culture, but it is with Scotland that the pipes are inevitably associated. Different types of bagpipes are still played today in ireland, England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, and several Arab countries; Scottish pipes are played in virtually every British Commonwealth nation and the United States.

Until the Little Ice Age of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the bagpipe was the most popular instrument in Europe. It was played at dances, fairs, and in religious processions, all held outdoors. When people moved indoors and enjoyed the benefits of those great new inventions, the fireplace and chimney, the bagpipe was superseded by stringed instruments- harp, viola, cittern- and other wind instruments- flute and oboe. In the Highlands of Scotland, however, pipes reigned supreme.

There is more than one style of Scottish bagpipe. Highland pipes come in full-size sets, 'reel sets,' and half-size sets, for playing indoors. These have much softer tone than full-size sets. Another type, 'lowland pipes,' is inflated with a bellows, and has drones and repeaters, similar to Irish Uileann pipes.

Scottish pipes today bear little resemblance to their ancient ancestors. Until the sixteenth century, pipes consisted of bag, chanter, blowstick, and one drone. In the early seventeenth century a second tenor drone was added, and the bass drone was only added about 1700. Thus the instrument played today is about three hundred years old. The pipes are tuned to a microtonally flattened A, with the chanter covering a nine-note range from G to A, with a flatted 7th. This flattening casts most tunes into a mixolydian mode. The three drones are likewise tuned to A; the two tenors are one octave below the chanter, and the large bass drone is two octaves below; all three drones set up a strong harmonic on E, providing a strong tonal coloring behind the melody. Additionally, pipes today are tuned to B flat in order to blend with concert bands. What all this means to those who don't play an instrument is: Scottish bagpipes ahd a very shrill, piercing sound which is backed by a strong bass line of a continuous note. The pitch of the instrument delights some and strongly annoys others.

The Great Highland Bagpipe is the only musical instrument ever to be banned as a weapon. Playing of the bagpipes was banned in Scotland by an Act of Parliament in 1747. After the last Jacobite Rising ended in 1746, the Hanoverian government tried to obliterate all Scottish culture, forbidding the wearing of tartan and carring of weapons. Since no clan ever went into battle without a piper, bagpipes were banned as a weapon of war.