Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

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Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by Cyberknight »

I'm getting SSPs soon, and I'd like to learn how to do Scottish/GHB ornaments when I get them, rather than relying solely on the Irish ornaments I'm used to. But I'm having trouble finding any online guide for how to do Scottish ornaments. Any recommendations?
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by iain beag »

Buy and read.
https://lbps.net/j3site/index.php/lbps- ... your-elbow

When you've finished and mastered buy volume 2

https://lbps.net/j3site/index.php/lbps- ... he-bellows

Then embark on a musical journey and enjoy.
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by pancelticpiper »

Cyberknight wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2025 2:28 pm I'm getting SSPs soon, and I'd like to learn how to do Scottish/GHB ornaments when I get them, rather than relying solely on the Irish ornaments I'm used to. But I'm having trouble finding any online guide for how to do Scottish ornaments. Any recommendations?
There are many SSP players who don't do GHB style ornaments, while people who started out playing GHB (like me) play the two instruments the same way.

It's up to you, but I will say that GHB ornamentation is a complex system which takes years to get good at.

The basics are simple, single gracenotes, the main "working" gracenote being High G. When in doubt, play a High G gracenote on every major beat.

The other two common single gracenotes are D and E.

These single gracenotes are like the Irish "cuts".

Also on GHB you have the equivalent of the Irish "pats", tapping one or two fingers to get a low gracenote.
 
Then there are "doublings" which (generally) are a High G gracenote followed by a D gracenote with a clear (but short) space in between- you don't want the doubling to sound like a blob, it should sound like two clear distinct cuts on the melody note.

Then there are "grips" or properly called the Leumluath (pronounced more or less LEM-luh).

A grip/leumluath is a three-note sequence Low G/D/Low G played quickly and evenly giving a sort of quick bubbling sound.

Then there are unique ornaments that only occur on one note:

"D throw" which is sort of like a leumluath on D, but instead of going Low G/D/Low G it goes Low G/D/C. Why, who can say.

"Birl" is only played on Low A, and is essentially two pats in quick succession. However the standard way to play birls is not to just tap the hole twice. Instead, there are a number of different ways to play birls, the most common being to sweep the straight little finger down past the hole, then pull in the finger so it's curled up, the finger striking the hole a second time while doing that. It's called the "figure 7" birl.

And that's just the basic Ceol Beag ornaments, there are tons more, borrowed from Ceol Mor (Piobaireachd) some very complex ornaments indeed.
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by pancelticpiper »

There was a "bagpipe composition challenge" going for a while, somebody would submit a phrase or motif and everyone would write a tune based on it.

This is a tune I wrote as part of one of them.

It allows you to see most of the basic "light music" (ceol beag) ornaments in action, in a waltzlike thing.

Image
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by Cyberknight »

Thank you pancelticpiper and iain! This is very helpful. :)
pancelticpiper wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2025 7:05 pm There are many SSP players who don't do GHB style ornaments, while people who started out playing GHB (like me) play the two instruments the same way.
I suspect what I'll end up doing is mostly Irish-style ornamentation with some GHB ones thrown in here and there (assuming I can work them out). I'm not interested in learning tunes on SSPs in the strict, regimented way most people learn GHBs. But some of those ornaments sound absolutely amazing, and I'd love to learn them.

I guess I'll order that book!
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by pancelticpiper »

Cyberknight wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2025 2:50 pm
...the strict, regimented way most people learn GHBs.
It's a common thing one hears, people speaking of the GHB as being regimented, sometimes in the specifically military connotation of that word.

All musical traditions, idioms, and genres have stylistic parameters, and having dipped my toes in several of them, and having a large amount of exposure to several others, I would say that the GHB idiom isn't necessarily more strict than the others.

I've done a lot of listening to good Irish traditional fluteplayers, including transcribing in detail many performances, and in the main the so-called ornaments (I call them articulations) fall into predictable patterns. Ditto with the uilleann pipes. Interestingly though the specific gracenote-sequence used in Crans varies from piper to piper yet they'll nearly always follow unwritten rules about which gracenotes are used, and not to use the same gracenote twice in sequence.

It's true that the GHB world, by the mid-20th century, had developed into a genre overly dependent on published sheet music. However if you look at the same tune published in several different books going back into the 19th (or even the 18th) century you'll see that no two versions are identical.

And in the pipe band world when a Pipe Major hands out music to a tune the band will be learning he/she might write out their personal version, or if using a version that exists in print make several changes, these changes usually in ornamentation or timings. So there might be several pipe bands playing the same tune, but all playing different versions.

One thing people outwith the pipe band world might not realise is how many of the tunes are new. Indeed there are bands who'll play several tunes composed by the Pipe Major or other band members for a competition season or two, then throw them all out and play all new material for the next season or two.

Another thing is bands heavily re-working old (or new) tunes, say, putting them in a different rhythm (turning a reel into a jig, a jig into a hornpipe, a reel into a waltz, etc).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTl26SETTAQ

So there's little in the way of "regimentation" at least with the better bands.

With solo piping there's even more scope for pipers creating personal settings of tunes. I attended a concert by Gordon Walker where he had put his personal twist on every tune he played, no matter how common the tune.

One interesting note is the lack of regimentation in the piping of the actual Regiments! I've heard the Scots Guards play many times, and oftentimes they're playing different versions of the tunes than they themselves published (in The Scots Guards Collection).
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by Steve Bliven »

And you might consider putting the Pipers Gathering on your calendar. Lots of instruction, advice on set-ups/fettling, sessions, etc. on SSP (as well as Uillean and Northumbrian pipes). Not far from the Boston area and well worth the time and effort to get a proper start on both the music and the instrument.

Another event that might be of interest is Cairdeas in Vermont in July. This is all SSP-oriented.

Best wishes.

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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by Cyberknight »

pancelticpiper wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 7:17 am
Cyberknight wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2025 2:50 pm
...the strict, regimented way most people learn GHBs.
It's a common thing one hears, people speaking of the GHB as being regimented, sometimes in the specifically military connotation of that word.

All musical traditions, idioms, and genres have stylistic parameters, and having dipped my toes in several of them, and having a large amount of exposure to several others, I would say that the GHB idiom isn't necessarily more strict than the others.

I've done a lot of listening to good Irish traditional fluteplayers, including transcribing in detail many performances, and in the main the so-called ornaments (I call them articulations) fall into predictable patterns. Ditto with the uilleann pipes. Interestingly though the specific gracenote-sequence used in Crans varies from piper to piper yet they'll nearly always follow unwritten rules about which gracenotes are used, and not to use the same gracenote twice in sequence.

It's true that the GHB world, by the mid-20th century, had developed into a genre overly dependent on published sheet music. However if you look at the same tune published in several different books going back into the 19th (or even the 18th) century you'll see that no two versions are identical.

And in the pipe band world when a Pipe Major hands out music to a tune the band will be learning he/she might write out their personal version, or if using a version that exists in print make several changes, these changes usually in ornamentation or timings. So there might be several pipe bands playing the same tune, but all playing different versions.

One thing people outwith the pipe band world might not realise is how many of the tunes are new. Indeed there are bands who'll play several tunes composed by the Pipe Major or other band members for a competition season or two, then throw them all out and play all new material for the next season or two.

Another thing is bands heavily re-working old (or new) tunes, say, putting them in a different rhythm (turning a reel into a jig, a jig into a hornpipe, a reel into a waltz, etc).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTl26SETTAQ

So there's little in the way of "regimentation" at least with the better bands.

With solo piping there's even more scope for pipers creating personal settings of tunes. I attended a concert by Gordon Walker where he had put his personal twist on every tune he played, no matter how common the tune.

One interesting note is the lack of regimentation in the piping of the actual Regiments! I've heard the Scots Guards play many times, and oftentimes they're playing different versions of the tunes than they themselves published (in The Scots Guards Collection).
The reason I used the term "strict, regimented" is because that's how people who have come from that tradition have often described it to me. I truthfully know absolutely nothing about GHB piping regiments, how most people learn GHBs, etc. I have some friends in the ITM community, however, who grew up playing GHBs. Many of them say they switched to ITM because the GHB-playing community - at least the competition-oritented one - tended to be be to OCD about playing tunes "correctly" and allowed little in the way of improvisation or creativity. One guy even recently told me that every single note and ornament is exactly scripted, and any changes to them are "wrong," such that tunes can take months to learn properly.

Again, that's just what people have told me. But then again, maybe I'm hearing from a biased sampling of people who have been involved in that community, because they're all people who switched over to ITM, and most of them (but not all) have a rather negative attitude towards GHBs and Scottish piping in general.
Last edited by Cyberknight on Sat Jan 25, 2025 4:23 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by Steve Bliven »

The "regimented" concept seems to come from the British tradition of military pipe bands and has carried on into the present pipe band competition system. There are highland players, e.g. Hamish Moore and the folks from Cape Breton, who approach the highland pipes as an instrument for accompanying dance — not dissimilar to how Uilleann pipe music evolved.

SSP, with their cylindrical bore and playing an octave lower, call out for somewhat different ornament approach. There, the "chirping" high ornaments are somewhat less conspicuous and some of the more "complicated" ornaments get lost in the melody. Many, if not most, smallpipe players approach playing as a freer form of music than what is necessary in a pipe band. I was influenced by Hamish Moore who emphasized the musicality in playing both the melody and the ornaments and less of "here's how it shows in the Scots Guard books." It may well be that those folks you mention as coming over from highland pipes are stepping away from the more regimented forms to more musical forms. (Or it may just be from domestic and/or neighbors' pressure.)

Them's just my thoughts.

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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by pancelticpiper »

Cyberknight wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:39 pm
The reason I used the term "strict, regimented" is because that's how people who have come from that tradition have often described it to me.
Over the years, generally when I hear somebody saying that it's a person who had a brief and/or superficial exposure to the Highland piping world.

But you never know! There's a thing I've run into many times about various religions, where people who claim they were "raised __________ " (fill in the particular religion) make bizarre and incorrect statements about "what ____________ do" or "what __________ believe", things utterly head-scratching to people who are actually involved in those particular religions.

Maybe they were sitting in the pews playing their Gameboys rather than paying attention to what was going on.

So it wouldn't be surprising that somebody could "come from" the GHB world but not have paid much attention to the whole spectrum of what goes on there.
Cyberknight wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:39 pm Many say they switched to ITM because the GHB-playing community - at least the competition-oriented one - tended to be be to OCD about playing tunes "correctly" and allowed little in the way of improvisation or creativity.
Well, attend an Irish traditional session and start improvising and see how it goes! The core of the people in that tradition take a dim view of people crashing the session by showing off their creativity. It's expected that to participate you play the tunes in the manner the session does.

Both ITM and the GHB world are traditional musics. Both have staunch traditionalists and people within the tradition pushing the boundaries and people outwith the tradition misunderstanding or not respecting it and trying to turn it into something it isn't.
Cyberknight wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:39 pm One guy even recently told me that every single note and ornament is exactly scripted, and any changes to them are "wrong."
For sure if you're playing in a Pipe Band they hand out sheet music and all the pipers have to learn the same setting of the tune.

You don't have one of the violinists in an orchestra go rogue and start playing whatever they want!

Or in an ITM group either, though with the mixed instruments in an ITM group (flute, uilleann pipes, fiddle, box, banjo, etc) each instrument has its own traditional approach to ornamentation. So you can have each instrument creating their ornaments with different specifics, yet everybody is playing in good unison.
Cyberknight wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:39 pm ...tunes can take months to learn properly.
Sounds like a slow learner. The pipe band I play in sent out music to our new 2025 March, Strathspey, and Reel and at the first in-person rehearsal a couple weeks later (the Holidays intervened) most of the pipers had it down to memory, a couple pipers still had sheet music in front of them, playing the tunes only slightly down in tempo.

Last night, the second rehearsal, everyone had it memorised and we were playing it at full speed.

But of course that's a band, and that's Ceol Beag or "light music".

For sure in Piobaireachd (Ceol Mor) to "master" a piece can take months, but we're talking a single piece that lasts 10 or 15 minutes with numerous sections, all of which are at slightly different tempi, and the whole thing having complex technique (Crunluath, Crunluath-a-mach, etc) and sophisticated "expression" or timings.

Also Piobaireachd solo competition suffers worse from being fossilised than Light Music, with a judge sometimes sitting with an open Kilberry Book or Piobaireachd Society book and expecting the competitor to play it like the book. Other judges are more concerned about musicality than sticking to the sheet music.
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by Cyberknight »

pancelticpiper wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 5:06 am
Cyberknight wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:39 pm
The reason I used the term "strict, regimented" is because that's how people who have come from that tradition have often described it to me.
Over the years, generally when I hear somebody saying that it's a person who had a brief and/or superficial exposure to the Highland piping world.

But you never know! There's a thing I've run into many times about various religions, where people who claim they were "raised __________ " (fill in the particular religion) make bizarre and incorrect statements about "what ____________ do" or "what __________ believe", things utterly head-scratching to people who are actually involved in those particular religions.

Maybe they were sitting in the pews playing their Gameboys rather than paying attention to what was going on.

So it wouldn't be surprising that somebody could "come from" the GHB world but not have paid much attention to the whole spectrum of what goes on there.
Cyberknight wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:39 pm Many say they switched to ITM because the GHB-playing community - at least the competition-oriented one - tended to be be to OCD about playing tunes "correctly" and allowed little in the way of improvisation or creativity.
Well, attend an Irish traditional session and start improvising and see how it goes! The core of the people in that tradition take a dim view of people crashing the session by showing off their creativity. It's expected that to participate you play the tunes in the manner the session does.

Both ITM and the GHB world are traditional musics. Both have staunch traditionalists and people within the tradition pushing the boundaries and people outwith the tradition misunderstanding or not respecting it and trying to turn it into something it isn't.
Cyberknight wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:39 pm One guy even recently told me that every single note and ornament is exactly scripted, and any changes to them are "wrong."
For sure if you're playing in a Pipe Band they hand out sheet music and all the pipers have to learn the same setting of the tune.

You don't have one of the violinists in an orchestra go rogue and start playing whatever they want!

Or in an ITM group either, though with the mixed instruments in an ITM group (flute, uilleann pipes, fiddle, box, banjo, etc) each instrument has its own traditional approach to ornamentation. So you can have each instrument creating their ornaments with different specifics, yet everybody is playing in good unison.
Cyberknight wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:39 pm ...tunes can take months to learn properly.
Sounds like a slow learner. The pipe band I play in sent out music to our new 2025 March, Strathspey, and Reel and at the first in-person rehearsal a couple weeks later (the Holidays intervened) most of the pipers had it down to memory, a couple pipers still had sheet music in front of them, playing the tunes only slightly down in tempo.

Last night, the second rehearsal, everyone had it memorised and we were playing it at full speed.

But of course that's a band, and that's Ceol Beag or "light music".

For sure in Piobaireachd (Ceol Mor) to "master" a piece can take months, but we're talking a single piece that lasts 10 or 15 minutes with numerous sections, all of which are at slightly different tempi, and the whole thing having complex technique (Crunluath, Crunluath-a-mach, etc) and sophisticated "expression" or timings.

Also Piobaireachd solo competition suffers worse from being fossilised than Light Music, with a judge sometimes sitting with an open Kilberry Book or Piobaireachd Society book and expecting the competitor to play it like the book. Other judges are more concerned about musicality than sticking to the sheet music.
It seems like I did a bad job explaining what I was trying to say. To be clear, I'm not trying to criticize GHB piping or put it down in any way. I was saying I know some people who have negative things to say about it, but I personally have no vendetta against it whatsoever. I think GHBs are awesome, and to the extent the tunes ARE more "scripted," more power to them. That's great. It's just not how I personally want to learn the pipes.

Now, regarding this question of "improvisation," that's where I really think we're talking past each other. Of courts ITM musicians don't go around "improvising" in the sense that they're making up tunes on the fly, completely changing tunes so that no one else can play along, etc. But ITM players absolutely DO "improvise" ornamentation all the time. There's no scripted way to do ornaments in a session. Heck, never mind a session. Even in stage performances of ITM music, the fiddles, flutes, and banjos pretty much never agree on which ornaments to use when, and they often play slight variations of the same tunes at the same time (but not different enough that it doesn't sound cohesive). So that's what I'm talking about when I say ITM is less "regimented": I mean you can make up your own ornaments as you see fit, and you aren't required to use a crann here and a roll there, etc.

You say GHBs (at least in the pipe band context) DO have scripted ornaments, because pipe bands all need to play the same thing when they're playing together, just like violinists in an orchestra. Well, yeah, that's kind of my point! I don't want to be like a violinist in an orchestra. I left classical music precisely because the music was so much less free-form than ITM and there wasn't as much room for creativity. This isn't to diss classical music - I adore classical music, and there's a good reason it's all "scripted." It's just not how I personally prefer to play. So if pipe bands all play scripted ornaments, that's awesome for them. That's just not how I want to play. I want to make up my own ornaments for each tune, as I do on whistle.

One last thing I'll say is that what I've heard about GHBs being "regimented" doesn't just apply to pipe bands. I've also heard this about solo piping competitions. I was told that for solo piping competitions, there's always a "right" way to play each tune, with each ornament exactly scripted, and if you play something "wrong" by doing a different ornament than what is written, you're docked points. And based on your last sentence, it seems this is also true. So it doesn't seem like I got inaccurate info from people who merely dabbled in GHBs. It seems like I got accurate information.

So it looks like (1) we don't disagree on anything factual, (2) I was doing a bad job explaining that I don't dislike GHBs or GHB traditions in any way, and (3) literally all I'm saying is that I don't want to learn Scottish pipe tunes the way people in pipe bands or Piobaireachd solo competitions learn them.
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by pancelticpiper »

Understood, and not only that, there's no reason to go down the GHB route with smallpipes anyway.

I found it interesting that in the period when I was playing SSP more than GHB, and playing SSP in a trio with fiddle and guitar, I found my playing style changing.

The tunes became less-ornamented, with more flow to them.

Another thing that happened, which I didn't even realise until I went back to GHB, was that my fingering had strayed in places from what works on GHB.

I should explain something about how the various sorts of Scottish chanters function. The main thing is stability.

If you have a chanter with ultimate stability it won't care what fingerings you use; the pitch will be determined by the uppermost open hole and won't change regardless of how many or which holes further down the chanter are closed.

That's pretty much how Scottish Practice Chanters and Smallpipe Chanters are.

The Uilleann Pipe chanter introduces some instability, so that you can play C natural or C# depending on fingerings, but the chanter doesn't give you any other useable crossfingered notes. Many notes on the chanter will stay pretty much on pitch with a variety of fingerings.

The older GHB chanters (up through the 1960s) had enough instability to give good crossfingered accidentals C natural, F natural, and High G sharp. There was enough instability to require one specific fingering for E to be in tune, but not enough instability to allow a crossfingered D#.

Over recent decades GHB chanters, as they've been redesigned to be louder, brighter, and sharper, have also become more stable, so that some of the old good crossfingered accidentals don't work any more. This greater stability means that more of the notes will stay more or less on pitch regardless of fingerings.

The least stable Scottish chanters are the so-called "Border" "Reel" or "Lowland" chanters. They require quite strict fingerings to play the ordinary notes in tune, and also give all the accidentals so that a full chromatic scale can be played.

All of this means that an SSP chanter isn't very persnickety about fingerings, and you can use GHB fingerings or fingerings more like Irish whistle, or Saxophone, or Gaita, or what have you.

The GHB is a bit more demanding, and many fingerings that are good on SSP will be out of tune on the GHB.

The "Border" chanters are even more demanding of specificity of fingering- there's generally only one fingering that will be in tune for a given note.
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by Cyberknight »

Thanks for the info, pancelticpiper! This is fascinating stuff!

I’m very glad to know that SSP players don’t all learn to play the way I was describing, and that how I’m planning to learn them isn’t considered “wrong.”

I really wonder what makes the pitch so stable on SSPs. It isn’t the fact that they’re cylindrical, I would think, because clarinets are cylindrical and I don’t think they share this pitch stability. Do they?

I hope it's still possible to do vibrato on them, despite their pitch stability.

At any rate, if I can play SSPs with almost the same fingerings I use for A whistle, that will definitely make things easier.

I guess I’ll find out when they arrive next week! :)
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by pancelticpiper »

Yes indeed whistle-type fingerings should work fine on an SSP chanter.

The basic difference between GHB fingering and instruments that use "open" fingering is that for GHB the bottom hand is, in effect, fingering Low A for all the upper-hand notes

x|xxx|xxxo Low A

x|xxo|xxxo E

x|xoo|xxxo F#

x|ooo|xxxo High G (natural)

o|oox|xxxo High A

Now, on Highland pipes, if when playing E you have any other arrangement of the bottom-hand fingers, say

x|xxo|ooox (or) x|xxo|ooxo

E will sound flat. But those fingerings are standard on many sorts of bagpipes, flutes, etc and they should be fine on SSP chanters.

Because I played Spanish Gaita and Bulgarian Gaida for many years this sort of fingering system comes natural to me, something along these lines:

x|xxx|xxxo Low A
x|xxx|xxoo B
x|xxx|xooo C#
x|xxx|ooxo D
x|xxo|ooxo E
x|xoo|ooxo F#
x|ooo|ooxo High G

(and various possible fingerings for High A.)

In other words, the bottom-hand ring finger is your "anchor" finger.

But GHB fingering isn't like that, but rather

x|xxx|xxxo Low A
x|xxx|xxoo B
x|xxx|xoox C# (the little finger has to come down or C# will be a bit flat)
x|xxx|ooox D
x|xxo|xxxo E
x|xoo|xxxo F#
x|ooo|xxxo High G
o|oox|xxxo High A

In Piobaireachd there's a different fingering for High G

x|oxo|xxxo High G (Piob.)

and an optional corresponding fingering for High A

o|oxo|xxxo (Piob.)
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
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pancelticpiper
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Re: Scottish bagpipe ornament guide

Post by pancelticpiper »

I was just looking over some sheet music from a Grade One pipe band, and it would amaze you how little ornamentation there is in much of it.

If you were to write out Irish rolls as being three melody notes and two gracenotes, I would say the gracenote-density of many of the modern Highland pipe jigs, reels, and hornpipes isn't appreciably greater than the same tunes as played on Irish whistle or flute, and certainly less than the same tunes as played on uilleann pipes.

Here's an example, a modern tune called The Walrus. It's pretty much just a High G gracenote on every major beat, and whatever other "cuts" and "pats" are necessary to separate the notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9a3jsSGmQU
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
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