Paulette Kostecki, age 14, of Hutchinson, Kan., for her question:

HOW DOES A BAGPIPE WORK?

A bagpipe is a musical instrument in which wind is supplied to one or more reed sounded pipes from a bag inflated by the performer. The air is usually put into the bag through a blowpipe.

The simplest bagpipes have a cane pipe with a single reed cut in the side. Often two parallel pipes are present with one a chanter or melody pipe and the other a drone.

The earliest surviving Scottish Highland pipe dates from 1409. Except that it lacks a bass drone, it resembles the present day Highland pipe, which has a conical bore, double reed chanter with eight finger holes and three drones (two tenors and a bass tuned an octave lower).

The Irish union pipe, or uillean pipe, is a complicated bellows blown instrument with a conical double reed chanter, usually with nine closed keys    The open bottom of the chanter rests on the player's knee. When the keys are all closed, the sound stops.

The bellows blown Northumbrian small pipe has seven closed keys on a cylindrical double reed chanter.