Gajde – serbian traditional music instrument

Gajde is a bagpipe musical instrument. It consists of a bag (mainly made of the sheep or goat hide), the stocks into which the chanters, blowpipe, and drone fit (made out of the cornel wood or an animal horn), the blow pipe (a short wooden/bone tube in which the player blows), reeds (Each chanter is fitted with a reed made from bamboo or elder), chanter (the pipe on which the melody is played), and a drone (a long tube that produces the same low sound throughout the whole performance).

It was mainly played at the weddings, accompanying “frula”, in “kolo“, and other events

The gajde player is called “Gajdas“. He plays by covering the wholes thus blocking the airway, and leaving the the desired one uncovered so it can produce the sound. The number of holes can vary depending on the variant of the instrument itself – some have a double-bored chanter (which has eight holes, etc.)

A very important piece of gajde is the flea-hole. It is the whole on the chanter which when uncovered changes the tuning of the instrument by a semitone, therefore allowing the musical ornamentation to be played. Without ornamentation, the folk music would lose its unique character.

Bagpipe family of instruments is interesting, because bagpipes do not require blowing into them the whole time. That is why they have bags – when a player blows into them, the bags fill with air thus supplying the instrument with the air while the player gets a breath.

You can hear how a Gajdas is playing gajde on the clip below: