An Electronic Bagpipe Chanter for Automatic Recognition of Highland Piping Ornamentation

The Highland piping tradition requires the performer to learn and accurately reproduce a diverse array of ornaments, which can be a daunting prospect to the novice piper. This paper presents a system which analyses a player’s technique using sensor data obtained from an electronic bagpipe chanter interface. Automatic recognition of a broad range of piping embellishments allows real-time visual feedback to be generated, enabling the learner to ensure that they are practicing each movement correctly. The electronic chanter employs a robust and responsive infrared (IR) sensing strategy, and uses audio samples from acoustic recordings to produce a high quality bagpipe sound. Moreover, the continuous nature of the IR sensors offers the controller a considerable degree of flexibility, indicating significant potential for the inclusion of extended and novel techniques for musical expression in the future.