Editing Border pipes (section)

===Chanter===
The instrument has a [[cone (geometry)|conical]]-bored chanter, in contrast to the cylindrically-bored [[Scottish smallpipe]]. The modern instruments are louder than the [[Scottish smallpipe]], though not as loud as the [[Great Highland Bagpipe]]; they blend well with stringed instruments.

The chanter has a thumb hole and seven finger-holes.  The compass of the chanter is nine notes, from G to a, though a few higher notes, typically b, c',and c#', are obtainable on some chanters by 'pinching' and overblowing. As with the Highland pipes, the basic scale is a [[mixolydian]] scale on A. Some chanters can play chromatic notes however, and some old tunes, for instance ''Bold Wilkinson'' or ''Wat ye what I got late yestreen'', suggest a [[Dorian mode|dorian]] scale may also sometimes have been used, requiring a minor third instead of the major third of the mixolydian scale. This could be achieved by cross-fingering or half-holing. Pete Stewart has further argued<ref>"Out of the Flames", compiler Roderick D. Cannon, Lowland and Border Pipers'Society, 2004, {{ISBN|9780952271116}}.</ref> that the existence of some G major tunes with a nine-note compass from G to a suggests that Border pipes formerly sounded a c natural, rather than c sharp; cross-fingering would then have been needed to sound a c sharp.

Some instruments are made in other pitches, typically B flat or G, rather than A.