Pipe dream comes true for folk musician

Donald (38),who was brought up in Bearsden, has spent many years perfecting the art of playing the Scottish small pipes, which use a bellow rather than a bag - and designed his chanter in the attic of his house in Pollok. He reckons it will revolutionise the playing range available to pipe players.

The married father of one, said: “The Scottish Small Pipes is the smaller and quieter sibling of the famous Highland Pipes, and is much loved by folk musicians for its rich and gentle tones. I was keen to open up new musical territory by widening the range of notes the pipes can produce. Now the range goes down to D on one side and up to D on the other. This means the small pipes can now be played with the Irish pipes, the penny whistle and Spanish pipes.”

The simple explanation is, the recording artist has added more holes to the chanter, but using his musically trained ear he has varied these to add the additional notes.

And by using 3D printing technology he has made The Lindsay System Chanter (http://lindstruments.com) which he says can play a whole octave more than the conventional chanter.