Bagpipes have always been a part of my life. My father, Frank Gannaway taught bagpipes throughout his life and some of my earliest memories were going to sleep with the sound of pipes.

He was taught Piobaireachd by John MacDiarmid, a nephew of Sandy Cameron, the last teacher in the Cameron school of piping. John was third in the piobaireachd at the Northern Meeting prior to emigrating to New Zealand. My father also had tuition from Murdo McKenzie, an Oban and Inverness gold medallist.

My wife Mary was a highland dancer, and we married in our early twenty’s. Shortly after our wedding we sailed to England on our way to Glasgow. We lived in Glasgow for eighteen months and during that time I was fortunate enough to receive tuition from PM Donald MacLeod MBE.

Learning from Wee Donald was a life changing experience. Memorizing a new Piobaireachd each week was very difficult for a start but become easier as I learned more about the patterns, phrasings and rhythms of piobaireachds. Teaching Piobaireachd to all of my pupils developed their piping ability more than just learning ceol beag.

On returning to New Zealand we started our family and a few years later set up our own business in bagpipe supplies. A major part of our business was the designing and development of the Gannaway pipe bag.

Donald Gannaway