Bagpipers use more than their lungs — they play with their hearts

Watch any bagpiper play, and you will see an amazingly intricate process taking place. He or she must blow air into the bag through a windpipe and then force the air out through the three drones with pressure applied by the arm the bag is tucked under. Intake and outtake must remain steady and constant, because if it is not, the pitch of the pipes will change and will sound out of tune.

All the while the air pressure thing is going on, the piper is fingering the tune on the chanter. Because there are relatively few holes, some notes may require awkward finger positions or half-covered holes and such. Plus, the chanter is always producing sound, so there is no rest between notes, and to play the same note twice in a row, a short note, called a grace note, must be played in between.

Add the fact that each set of pipes has four separate, very finicky reeds, which are subject to changes in temperature, altitude, humidity and other things, and you'll see why bagpipes are hardly the easiest instrument to play, let alone master. They require the coordinated effort of lungs, diaphragm, fingers, arms, brain — and as they are often played on the move, legs.

Listen to any bagpiper play, however, and you will soon discover that another body part is involved. Bagpipers also play with their hearts.

More than many other instruments, bagpipes seem to pull out additional layers of emotion. For most players, there are elements of heritage and tradition and passion that run deep into the soul.

"Hereditary insanity is not necessary," jokes Jack Marinello, drum major for the Salt Lake Scots. But it's usually there, he says. Despite his Italian last name, "my mother was Scots-Irish, so it's in me, too."

To be a Scot, the Utah Scottish Association notes, "is to be fiercely proud, patriotic and competitive." Nothing illustrates that any more than the bagpipes, which have become a quintessential symbol of Scotland and all things Scottish.

The thing about bagpipes, says Andrew Morrill, pipe master for the Wasatch & District Pipe Band and president of the Western United States Pipe Band Association, "is that when they are played well — there's nothing like it in the world." On the other hand, when they are played badly, "well, there's nothing like it in the world."

Fortunately, he says, "We've learned so much about playing bagpipes. It's gotten so much better." If you went back and listened to how pipe bands were in the early days in this state, "they'd sound pretty hideous. It's amazing what we put up with. But it's gotten so much better. All the companies sound really nice."