Scottish Smallpipes/Uilleann Hybrid!

Yep, I’ve seen folk (and videos of them) proudly extolling the virtues of their tunable drones to ‘fit’ the tunes where, at least in the case of Highland pipe tunes, I’d usually find them ruined by such a ‘fit’. So take a tune like Paddy’s Leather Breeches with drones tuned to Bs and for sure it ‘fits’, but the effect of alternating consonance and dissonance is completely reversed and the distinctive character lost. Likewise with, say, The Little Cascade, where an E drone would probably sound even limper.

No problems with reharmonisation for other chordal, non-drone instruments, where it’s probably even necessary, but don’t generally like pipes alone in Highland repertoire with retuned drones. And no problems with the likes of Callum Armstrong writing exciting new material exploiting all kinds of new drone tunings because his stuff’s designed for that!