Amongst pipers, it is expected that some competence in reading and writing notation has been attained. It is not very hard but a little study in this department opens up a world of music books to the learner and, in the long run, is much easier than trying to learn everything of by ear.
In standard musical notation the names of all the notes are A, B, C, D, E, F and G. These are duplicated to represent notes which are 8 notes, or an octave apart. The note length or duration is represented as little ovals with or without stalks. The time signature dictates the amount of notes allowed in each bar. This makes the tune sound like a march or reel or waltz or whatever the composer wishes to express. In bagpipe music the available time signatures are 2/4, 3/4,4/4,2/2 ,3/8,6/8,9/8 and 12/8.
Simple time means that the signature has always 4 in the bottom number. The 4 represents quarter notes which are worth one beat each.
Compound time has an extra note value added. This gives these tunes a swing. They have the number 8 in the bottom number and represent eighth notes which are twice as fast as quarter notes. Each beat equals one and half quarter notes. If a signature of 6/8 is present, this would mean that each bar must contain 6 eight notes. Compound time signatures are often group into 3,or equivalent, note bundles.
