My suggestion is that you try the Scottish small pipes which are very different in sound to the highland pipes and are much more session friendly coming as they do in the keys of A and D (yes you can get other keys but who cares)check out ray sloane he makes both northumbrian and scottish and he has wave files on his site so you can hear the difference.

I found that the northumbrian pipes were impossible to play (having above average sized hands)but the scottish small pipes much friendlier.