By clicking on the links on this page, you can hear short samples of the three main types of music that is used in Scottish Country Dancing.

They are all quite short - no more than half a minute.

First there is the Strathspey, this one being Isobel MacDonald of Enzie Manse.  Strathspeys have 4 beats to the bar and this sample has 16 bars.  Each bar takes about 2 seconds - twice as long as a bar in reel or jig time.

Next there is the Reel which has also 4 beats in the bar but the tempo is about twice as fast as the Strathspey.  This one is Rachel Rae.  (Also 16 bars but they take half the time of the Strathspey).  If you can say "Egg and Mustard" in time to the music, then it's a reel.

Finally there is the Jig.  This one is The Blackthorn Stick.  This sample contains 24 bars.  Jigs are usually written in 6/8 time (not that you need to know that) which means two groups of three short notes in the bars (if you can say jigetty-jigetty in time with the music, then you will know it's a jig.

Nearly all the tunes used in Scottish Dancing have two parts each of 8 bars.  So, for a dance based on 32 bars, the band will play the tune twice for each 32 bar section.

Before the banning of the highland bagpipe in the aftermath of the 1745 rebellion, dances were often accompanied by pipe music but after this date, the fiddle became the predominant instrument.  Nowadays, most Scottish dance bands include a fiddler, a drummer and a pianist, and sometimes also an accordionist.  The pipes are still used to accompany highland dancing (a competitive and athletic cousin to SCDs) but for many reasons, they are seldom heard at country dances.  One reason is that the tempo at which bagpipe reels are played is very different from that used for SCDs at today's dances.  A solo piper playing a 32 bar reel takes approximately 44 seconds whereas a dance band would zip through the same tune in something over 30.  Because of the intricate fingering in reels, it would be impossible for a piper to play them at dance band speed.  For the slower strathspeys, however, pipers and bands play at about the same speed (just under 2 seconds per bar).  And in the case of jigs, which have a simpler structure and simpler fingering than reels, pipers normally play these slightly faster than do dance bands.  It may be only 10% faster but this speed would leave most dancers "reeling" so to speak.  The message is clear - if you want to use a piper for your dances, stick to strathspeys!

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