A music expert has warned bagpipes are becoming “critically endangered” – slumping into the bottom five least purchased instruments last year. The traditional Scottish instrument is not being taken up by enough youngsters – and the only instruments that sold worse in the UK last year were the kazoo and the bassoon, data shows.
It comes after the Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust (SSPDT) charity warned in a 2019 report of a “silent decline” in bagpipe learning. The 2024 slump – the second year running bagpipes have been in the bottom five instrument purchases – comes despite a 6 per cent rise in musical buys overall.
Alexandra Duncan, chief exec of the SSPDT, said: “It’s clear there is a huge unmet demand to learn pipes and drums amongst Scotland’s pupils. When bands in our towns and communities vanish quietly, and when there is no tuition in local schools either, we lose a precious cycle of teaching and learning.”
The new figures have been collated by Gear4Music, the UK’s largest online instrument retailer, in partnership with Moombix, a platform which offers live online music lessons with expert teachers. Sales data from Gear4Music – which sells over 63,000 instrument types and music products – reveals that, in 2024, the least-purchased instruments were the kazoo (1st), bassoon (2nd), bagpipes (3rd), tenor horn (4th), oboe (5th), and flugelhorn (6th).
Generally, data shows enthusiasm for musical instruments rising since the Covid lockdowns – but some instruments are being left behind. Margret Juliana Sigurdardottir, CEO and Founder at Moombix, said: “The overall resurgence in music learning is not transferring to a number of instruments which were first identified as ‘endangered’ nearly a decade ago, and bagpipes should now perhaps be considered ‘critically endangered’.
“The disappearance of the bagpipes, bassoon, tenor horn, oboe, and flugelhorn risks a hollowing-out of British orchestras and bands in the decades to come. Bagpipes being in the doldrums confirms concerns raised in Scotland in 2019 that a key aspect of national culture was at risk of disappearance.”
However, piper and tutor Neil Clark – who has playing the bagpipes since he was four-years-old and teaching since 2008 – sounded a note of optimism about the future of Scotland’s national instrument.
Neil, 60, of Falkirk Piping, said: “The internet, social media and tastes of younger generations has not stopped people learning the bagpipes. If anything, it has opened it up.”
He said his tuition sessions have been fully booked since 2018 – and during the pandemic he had 5-6 enquiries every day despite temporarily suspending face-to-face lessons. Neil added: “There is absolutely no way the bagpipes are on the way out and there is no sign of our love of the bagpipes dying.”
The best-selling instruments in the UK are the electric guitar, followed by the keyboard, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, and ukulele. The rise in popularity of electronic music has also seen sales of DJ decks soar and acoustic instruments fall as a market share compared to digital kit.
Acoustic drum kit sales have declined year-on-year according to the Gear4Music data, whereas digital drum kit sales have boomed. Other woodwind instruments besides bagpipes have declined in popularity including school orchestra staples like the recorder – seventh lowest overall for sales in 2024.
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