Nerd, depends on who's playing the pipe tune. There are players in Cape Breton who have, and still do have the tradition of playing for dances like 100 years ago. Pipers like Barry Shears, Allan MacKenzie are current pipers who have successfully resurrected the art of playing for dancers and at dances.

Players like Hamish Moore and Fred Morrison have learned a lot from them. They also learned at the hands of other pipers who recently (in the last five years) died who did play for dances without the marching band/military tradition.