Scale of The Great Highland Bagpipe (GHB).
One Octave of the GHB.
Definition of music. A tone or frequency that sounds pleasant to the human ear.
Definition of one octave: The distance between one note and the next note bearing its same name.
Definition of GHB Notes: Low G, Low A, B, C, D, E, F, High G, High A.
Question: Using any musical, which note is the starting note of the octave?
Therefore, by definition, one octave of the GHB is from Low G to High G. Count of 7 notes. With most instruments and in music theory students are taught that one octave consists of 12 notes. Six whole tones and six non-whole (#) tones. Together, these make up 12 notes, also referred to as 12 semitones.
Notes, C, C# ,D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A#, B, C. Whole notes C,D,E,F#,G#,A#,C
The GHB consists of seven (7) notes in one (1) Octave. Why is this important to know? The GHB is based off of what is known as the Pentatonic Scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale.
References:
Caption John A. MacLellan
Ewam MacPherson, 1998 https://publish.uwo.ca/~emacphe3/pipes/acoustics/pipescale.html
| Item | Note | Hz | Diff | Comment – William Cawthon 1970 | Diff 2 |
| Base Drone | 1 | 115 | .25 | =0.25 | |
| Tenor Drone | 2 | 230 | .5 | =0.5 | |
| Chanter | |||||
| 1 | LOW G | 414 | .90 | ||
| 2 | LOW A | 460 | 1.00 | Consider the CHTR Base Use | =1.0 |
| 3 | B | 529 | 1.15 | ||
| 4 | C | 575 | 1.25 | =2.0 | |
| 5 | D | 621 | 1.35 | ||
| 6 | E | 690 | 1.50 | =3.0 | |
| 7 | F | 759 | 1.65 | NORMAL | |
| F | 805 | 1.75 | PB? CHECK THIS OUT FOR “F” | =4.0 | |
| 8 | HIGH G | 828 | 1.80 | ||
| 9 | HIGH A | 928 | 2.00 | =5.0 |