Early Highland bagpipes

[OC Richard]

I work with a Spanish guy who plays gaita and around ten years ago he got me really into it. I got a very nice gaita from Spain. I learned the fingering (which is quite different from the Scottish pipes) and learned several Spanish tunes and did a number of duet gigs with this guy.

There are several 'bullet points' to keep in mind when speaking of the Spanish gaita:

-There are two major styles, from Asturias and Galicia. They superficially resemble each other, however the fingering of the chanter is almost diametrically different between the two. The modern Galician gaita fingers rather like a recorder; the Asturias gaita fingers more like a Northumbrian pipe. Neither fingers like a Scottish pipe.

-In Galicia a distinction is made between the traditional gaita and the neo-gaita called either the gaita marcial or the gaita de banda.

The fully traditional gaita is in the key of C (one full tone higher than the GHB), made of boxwood with black horn mounts, and having a bass drone only, up on the shoulder exactly like a Scottish bass drone. A tenor may also be present, which often has a shutoff valve. The tenor sticks out of the side of the bag. More rarely a tiny third drone is added, sticking up from the neck of the bag.

There is also the modern updated traditional gaita, made of blackwood with nickel mounts, often in the key of D (one full step higher than the traditional gaita) in order to play with folk ensembles. This is the style of gaita made famous by Carlos Nunez and Susana Seivane.

The modern marching band gaita (gaita de banda or gaita marcial) is in the key of Bb (the same as the GHB), made of blackwood with nickel mounts, and has all the drones (whether one, two, or three) all up on the shoulder Scottish-style.

All these Galician gaitas have a chanter capable of a mostly (or sometimes fully) chromatic scale, and going at least a couple notes into the 2nd octave.