The piper conundrum

Living in Edinburgh I often (every few seconds!) see and hear pipers busking in the city streets. They seem to do well from the tourists and people like to get their photos taken with them for souveniers of their visit (one friend of mine took this practice one step further and got her photo taken with any person she came across wearing some sort of uniform/outfit and ended up with loads of photos of her with various policemen, nightclub bouncers and a vicar along with the obligatory piper!)


I don't mind bagpipes, they are very noisy so if you are close its often a bit loud, but I have noticed something.....When they play in groups of pipers and/or accompanied by drummers it sounds like a song and is pleasant to listen to, but often when theres just one guy with a set of bagpipes it does sound like a squeezed cat thats possibly managing a slight tune. (the fact I don't know the songs they play probably doesn't help this!) I think I'd be far happier on my daily commute if all the individual guys got together to do their busking as a group instead!