Music
One the very best things about Scottish Highland Dance is the music! Many of the traditional dances are danced to Scottish bagpipe tunes played on the Great Highland Bagpipe. Dances may also be performed to other tunes (often Celtic in origin) played on instruments such as Scottish smallpipes, Uilleann pipes, fiddle, bodhran, accordion, and many others.
Here are some suggestions for music we commonly use at Piedmont Highland Dance. Most of the cds are collections of the various tunes and dances most often used for Highland Dance. They usually include a range of tempos and steps to suit various performance situations and levels of dance experience.
Many of these cds are available online from Highland Xpress, Amazon or other retailers or they may be downloaded from itunes, spotify and similar music streaming services.
Some good, basic collections for the dancer:
Note: the following items can be ordered at Highland Xpress
- A High Cut Above, by Simon Fraser University Pipe Band
(A High Cut Above also has a companion book that may be ordered which contains the sheet music and much other information of use to the dancer and piper.)
- The Competing Highland Dancer, by Stuart Liddell
- Leap and Rock I and II, by Michael Grey
- Fling Time I and II, by Andrew McCowan
- Strictly Time I and II, by Alan Walters
- Piping for Highland Dancing, by Jim Scott
- Diversity, by David Wilton
We’ll be adding more music suggestions. Check back!