>Tunes for bagpipes, as tunes for dulcimers, have restricted scales compared
>to the 12 note scale I'm used to. Is there a easy way (read, use a program
>to do it) to convert tunes created for 12 note scales for use with bagpipes,
>dulcimers, etc.?
Looks to me like you are confusing two different problems.
Some dulcimers are diatonic, i.e. they have a fixed 7-note scale. So
are some bagpipes (not the union/uillean pipes or the more complicated
kinds of Northumbrian pipe). Most Western European folk tunes fit
closely enough to a diatonic scale that if you pick the right starting
note you won't have much problem doing them on a diatonic instrument so
they sound basically okay (an exception: the Shetland lament "Da Slockit
Licht", where the high G occurs both sharp and natural, and you can't
cheat).
Bagpipes, except for uillean pipes, have an additional problem: they
have a very limited range. For a Highland pipe there are just nine
notes (ten by an arcane trick nobody uses any more). So unless a
tune was intended for it in the first place, chances are there will
be notes hanging off the ends; most tunes are fundamentally vocal and
most people's voices can do a wider range than that. Pipe music
arrangers sometimes manage to get round this by shifting notes an
octave, a fifth or a third so that the tune stays recognizable; see
the example of "The Ewie wi the Crookit Horn" in the modes tutorial
on my website. But for a lot of tunes they have the sense not to try.
There is a good reason why pipe bands don't play the British national
anthem, and Scottish national feeling ain't it.
Neither process, forgetting the chromatic notes or folding in the
outliers, is automatable. Neither is the more basic step of deciding
whether you're on a hiding to nothing.
=================== <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> ===================
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