bass drone. The longest drone on a set of bagpipes, when tuned sounds exactly two octaves lower than Low-A on the chanter.

blowpipe. Used to get air from the piper's mouth to the bag. One end of the blowpipe is fitted with a replaceable mouthpiece and the other is commonly fitted with a flapper valve.

blowpipe stock. A wood (or plastic) cylinder which is secured to the bag and into which is inserted the blowpipe.

blowpipe valve. Sometimes called a flapper valve, this keeps the air from coming back out of the bag through the blowpipe. Traditionally made of leather, commerical valves—such as the Lil' Mac—are made of rubber, plastic and metal. Sometimes fabricated out of electrical tape in a pinch. Also sometimes called a "clack valve."

chanter. The portion of a set of bagpipes upon which the piper produces the melody of a tune by opening and closing holes with his/her fingers. Sometimes called a "pipe chanter."

drone cap. A disc of material—usually silver, ivory or a synthetic ivory—that rings the outside edge of the top end of a drone

drone cords. Rope-like material, with tassles on the two ends, used to secure drones into position.

drones. The three large wooden "tubes" tied together by cords on a set of great highland bagpipes, that produces - usually - a single uninterupted note, tuned to a specific relationship to one of the notes of the chanter (for example, an octave below the chanter keynote). Some drones have devices by which an alternate note can be sounded, either during play or by performing an adjustment between tunes. All drones have some provision for tuning, commonly by adjusting the bore length via sliding joints or other mechanical arrangement, or by adjusting the reed - either by changing its depth of seating and/or by altering the weight and/or the effective length of the reed's vibrating blade(s). Drones may be mounted alone, together with one or more other drones in a common stock, in a common stock next to a chanter, within a chanter, or within an assembly containing multiple drones.

ferrule.  a band, usually of a metal such as brass, copper or silver, mounted around the ends of stocks, drone joints and blowpipes to be both decorative and to reinforce thin-walled areas of these and similar parts.

hemp. Heavy string used to hold adjustable parts of the bagpipe in place, such as at the base of a chanter reed or on the drone sliders. Once placed, is often referred to as "hemping,"

knob. The top wide round part of a chanter above the high-A hole that butts against the chanter stock

mounts in general refers to the trimwork on the wooden parts of a bagpipe - some of it functional, some not. Pipes are sometimes referred to as full-mounted, meaning that all terminations of all the component wooden parts are fitted with metal, ivory, horn, various plastics and so on, or half-mounted, meaning that certain parts are left in plain wood

mouth piece. A tubular piece of wood or plastic that screws onto the threaded end of the blowpipe and fits into the piper's mouth

reed.   a device that opens and closes (more or less) rapidly as air passes through it into the bore of a woodwind, thus creating a vibration in the bore which is perceived as sound. Bagpipe reeds are of two basic types - single-blade, similar in action to a clarinet reed, though constructed differently, and double-blade, similar to an oboe reed. The exact configuration of reeds varies from type to type of pipe

tenor drone. One the two short drones on a set of bagpipes, when tuned sounds exactly one octave lower than Low-A on the chanter.

yoke.  a structure designed to hold two pipes - for example a chanter and a drone or a pair of drones - together