Few things are as obnoxious as an out-of-tune Great Highland Bagpipe (GHB), or for that matter any untuned bagpipe. Bagpipes heard out-of-tune are the major reason why many people dislike the instrument. Out-of-tune pipes may lead to social unrest, dog bites, high gasoline prices and shortages of Prozac. Divorce lawyers consider badly tuned pipes money in the bank. If politicians were not categorically deaf, they long ago would have made it a felony to inflate a bagpipe in public without at least intending to tune it.
An in-tune bagpipe, on the other hand, is a sweet-sounding thing indeed, and therein lies a secret: Even a fledgling piper, who perhaps hasn’t yet developed the swiftest of fingers, can make nice music that will please not only himself but others as well, if the pipe is but played in tune.
In its most basic form, a bagpipe consists of a melody pipe, called the chanter, which produces a series of different notes depending on which of its fingerholes are open and closed, and at least one drone pipe, which produces a single constantly-sounding note. The notes of the melody pipe must be in tune with each other, just as the notes of a piano or any other instrument must be in tune with one another, and additionally the note produced by the drone must be in tune with the chanter’s notes. If the bagpipe has more than one drone, then obviously the additional drones must likewise be in tune both with one another and with the chanter.
The interplay between the melody notes sounding against the steady tones of the drone(s) creates an effect that is the defining characteristic of a bagpipe. It’s a case of the sum being greater than the parts – a drone heard alone is hardly impressive, and most chanters played alone don’t sound like much either. But put them together and all sorts of fabulous fireworks ensue – if they are in tune. This is because the sounds of an in-tune chanter and the drones reinforce one another in complex and dramatic ways. If they’re not in tune, not only is this effect lost but a discordant noise, rather than music, is generated. It’s a huge, huge difference.
But what does “in tune” mean? That simple term is loaded with all sorts of different meanings. In a very basic sense, it means that when individual musical tones are played in a sequence, one at a time as in a melody, they are perceived by the ear as having a pleasing or at least a logical relationship to one another. Likewise, when two or more tones are played simultaneously, as when strumming a chord on a guitar or when playing a bagpipe with its drones and chanter sounding, “in tune” again means that the tones have a pleasing effect together. Here are some examples:
| What Are Musical Sounds?
Sounds reach the ear as waves moving through the air, like ripples from a pebble tossed into a pond. Sound waves move at high speed, roughly 1200 feet per second. (Outrunning the sound of an out-of-tune bagpipe is sometimes attempted but always futile.) A simple non-musical sound – say the noise of a creaking floorboard – might have only few individual waves, of differing size and shape, and these might arrive at the ear at irregular intervals. A musical sound is much more organized. For example, when a guitar string is plucked, the string vibrates rapidly and at a constant rate. This vibration is transmitted to the air and becomes a steady stream of waves, one for each complete back-and-forth swing of the string. The individual waves of a simple steady musical tone are evenly spaced and of uniform shape. As a group they may be taller or shorter, which makes them sound louder or softer. A graphic representation of a musical tone looks like this: In-Tune and Out-Of-Tune Musical Sounds: When different musical tones are played simultaneously, they will sound pleasing and musical, or grating and nasty, depending on the relationship they have with one another, as will be explained further along. Here is an example of two tones that sound good together. Each is first heard alone, then together. Click on the graph to hear two tones that harmonize Whereas here are two tones that don’t fit together at all well: Click on the graph to hear two discordant tonesThe reasons why these combinations of tones are so very different from one another are discussed in the body of this essay. For now, looking at the two graphs, note that the first tone in each set, on the left, is the same; it is the second tones that differ from one another. Looking at the combined tones on the right end of the graphs, notice that the harmonious one looks much more regular and symmetrical than the discordant one. |