Did you know...

 that one of the most important members of a Scottish Clan Chief's retinue was his bard, who might be either harper or piper, and who was given a place of rank at the Chief's table?

 that the positions of Clan harper and piper were hereditary, handed down from a father to a son in the same clan, although not necessarily in the same clan as the Chief? The MacCrimmons furnished the hereditary pipers to the MacLeods, the MacArthurs supplied pipers to the MacDonalds of the Isles, the Rankins to the MacLeans of Duart, the MacKays to the MacKenzies of Gairloch, and the MacIntyres to the Menzies.

 that every Piper to a Chief was expected to produce a son to eventually be trained to take his father's place as Piper to the Chief?

 that the pipers of Clan MacCrimmon were not only considered the finest pipers in Scotland, but that they founded the most famous College of Piping in the world on the Isle of Skye, in order to pass on their knowledge, and develop piping talent in others?

 that the MacCrimmons were so highly respected as pipers, that during "the '45" when Donald Ban MacCrimmon who was supporting the Hanovarians and King George, was captured and imprisoned by the Jacobites, the pipers in the opposing army of Bonnie Prince Charlie refused to play until he was freed and returned to his own company?

 that during a skirmish at Keith in 1745 between King George's troops and Prince Charlie's, when a volunteer piper for the Prince was thrown off a bridge into the River Isla, he continued to play his pipes, while the inflated bag served as a life preserver until he could be rescued, amid much merriment, by his fellows?

 that the famous Neil Monroe claimed that: "To the make of a piper go seven years of his own learning and seven generations before;

 that the Hereditary Pipers to the Chiefs were so proud of their exalted positions that they would not only refuse to stoop to any other tasks in the Clan, but would not even carry their own pipes? A young boy of the clan called a Gille-Piobair was usually "fingered" for this duty!

 that although bagpipes are of great antiquity and, in various native forms, are found in many countries of the world, the Great Highland Bagpipe is the only national instrument in Europe and, as such is used in Scotland alone?

 that Scottish bagpipe music is taught by an ancient system called "Canntaireachd"? It is a "language all its own," the "mouth music" of the Gael: symbols of mouth-sounds converted into musical notes, and sounding unintelligible to any but bagpipers and their students!

 that after the Battle of Culloden, when King George of Hanover issued the Act of Proscription in 1747 to disarm the Highlanders, the bagpipe was included among the specified "'weapons of war," because the martial music played on the pipes was so stirring as to arouse rebellion in the minds and hearts of the suppressed Scots?

 that the Act of Proscription of 1746 also forced the closing of the MacCrimmon College of Piping on the Isle of Skye?

 that the Scottish musical scale consists of six notes in the Key of C: c, d, e, g, a, c-and was once believed to he the enharmonic scale used by the Egyptians and other Eastern peoples? But recently through delicate electronic experiments, by Seumas MacNeil at the Glasgow College of Piping, it has been determined that there is no similarity between the two scales.