The gaita de saco (or ''de bota'') is a type of

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...

native to the provinces of

Soria Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 ( INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial populati ...

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...

Álava Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Álava, former medieval Catholic bishopric and now Latin titular see. Its c ...

, and

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of ...

in north-central Spain. In the past, it may also have been played in

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is in the Inner Plateau ('' Meseta central''), near the northern slopes of t ...

and Ávila. It consists of a single chanter (''puntero'') holding a double reed which plays the melody, and single drone (''ronco''), which has a single reed and plays a constant bass note. In La Rioja, the instrument is called ''bota'' or ''gaita de bota'', supposedly to differentiate it from the folk oboe also called ''gaita''. Its use in the past was more extensive throughout the regional valleys, but is now reduced to a zone around the high Najerilla until the 1950s when it disappeared along with the traditional dances to which was historically linked. Currently, the instrument is being revived along with the traditional dances in certain villages, such as Ventrosa de la Sierra and Viniegra de Arriba. The name is clearly related to the gaita gallega and

gaita asturiana The ''gaita asturiana'' is a type of bagpipe native to the autonomous communities of Principality of Asturias on the northern coast of Spain. Differences from other Iberian gaitas *The ''gaita asturiana'' is of larger size than the ''Galician ...

, with the only distinctive feature of the gaita de saco being its louder sound. Currently the gaita de saco is generally made in C or B-flat.

See also