@HisAndHearsePress
The #GreatHighlandBagpipe is from #Scotland. That is the one you see most often in parades. The #Uilleann #bagpipes are Irish, and you see those most often played by #Irish folk musicians.
The GHBs require the player to constantly blow up the bag. It only has nine notes, so they can't play tunes with rests/breaks or >9 notes in them. Their HUGE volume is actually from on *tiny* wooden reed, built like an oboe reed, that's about the length of a U.S. quarter.
The Uilleann pipes can play a wealth of notes. Their bag is kept inflated using a kind of bellows under the left arm of the #bagpiper.
The composer for the film #Braveheart did not realize the musical limitations, so the #music he wrote for the film could not be played on #Scottish pipes. The theme you "see" the #piper playing in the film is actually being played on a Uilleann #bagpipe.
Be sure to check out this video, where #AllyThePiper demonstrates how bagpipes work.
AnneTheWriter
Vickie Gray