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In addition to the nine notes of the scale, bagpipe tunes contain some combination of these technical elements: gracenotes and strikes nine doublings (one for each note) the four bottom hand movements: birl, D throw, grip, taorluath That's it. Nine notes, gracenotes & strikes, nine doublings, and the four bottom hand embellishments. There are a few other ones that are used in Piobaireachd and are rarely used in other tunes (darado, edre, crunluath, etc.) Today, we focus on gracenotes and doublings. The perfect gracenote is very short and quick. The goal is a crisp sound, played right on the beat. Gracenotes are small, short notes -- never big. If you've ever been told to play big, open gracenotes or "really lift your fingers off the chanter" -- think again. Small gracenotes sound clear and strong. Big gracenotes sound sloppy and floppy. Have a listen to this video demonstration of a couple of tunes played with ...