The Great Highland Bagpipe takes its place as the major and most familiar instrument in the bagpipe family, which is comprised of various forms of bagpipes from cultures worldwide -- from Spain to Yugoslavia, and Russia to India. Whatever the type, they are derived from an ancient reed pipe, originally played without a bag or drones. The forerunner of today's bagpipe accompanied the Celts from ancient Scythia, via the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, to Britain. Thus, it arrived with the Celts long before the Roman invasion.

The Highland bagpipe of today consists of a chanter, on which the melody is played, and three drones (two tenors and a bass) which provide a steady harmonic accompaniment. Air is supplied from a reservoir (the bag), filled by the piper through a blowpipe.

The wooden parts are generally made from African blackwood, which are adorned with ferrules and mounts of real or imitation ivory and/or silver or nickel. The bag is of sheepskin, cowhide, or more commonly in North America, elkhide. The bag is often covered with a tartan or plain wool fabric.

The present form of the Highland bagpipe was developed in the th century, the former style having only two tenor drones. Other kinds of pipes are occasionally seen, such as the Northumbrian bagpipe of Northern England and the Uillean pipe of Ireland, both of which use a bellows form of wind supply.

Music for the Highland Bagpipe is classified traditionally in three parts: "Ceol beag' (little music), consisting of marches, strathspeys and reels; "Ceol meadhonach" (middle music), made up of slow airs and jigs; "Ceol mor" (big music), which is the classical form called Piobaireachd. However, pipe music today is often referred to as falling into one of two categories: "light music" or Pio-baireachd, the former being what many associate with piping.

Bagpipe music familiar to most people came into being largely in the 19th century with the emergence of many marches, although not excluding jigs, reels, and so on. The nature of this music and instrument, requiring multiple grace notes, doublings and other flourishes, gives bagpipe tunes a unique characteristic. The ability to turn a simple melody into an exciting, lilting tune is as much a function of the difficult grace notes as it is the basic rhythm of the melody and style of the piper. In fact, a pipe tune played without its grace notes and other ornaments can be dull and repetitive. And if played poorly, they lend the tune a muddled, sloppy sound.

There is no doubt of the incredible range of emotions elicited by the bagpipe and its music. It has long been a festive instrument at weddings and other happy gatherings. And yet at funerals, its the melancholy wailing of a lament played on the pipes can express the grief of relatives better than any other instrument. Then again, it has been used for ages as an accompaniment to soldiers, supplying a steady pace and filling a Highlander's heart with courage, hope, and determination.

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