SANDY — A young group of Utah bagpipers is gearing up for its first competitive performance this weekend.

The Juvenile Utah Pipe Band practices in Sandy and includes members as young as 8 and as old as high school-aged, said John Barclay, the group’s instructor. There are members from all over the Wasatch Front, including Salt Lake and Utah counties, he said.

The group will compete at the Utah Highland Games and Scottish Festival on Saturday and Sunday. They’ll be performing against groups made up of adults and high school-age teens, Barclay said.

Timothy Chinsky, 12, who leads the group as its pipe major, said he’s both excited and nervous about the competition.

“I think we’re a little bit of both,” he said. “I think we’re going to do really well.”

The group will have to march into the competition area, play their tunes and then march out, all in unison, Timothy said. Playing the bagpipes is very complicated because you have to tune the instrument, check to make sure the reeds are all right and squeeze the bag so that the pitch is steady.

The band is getting better at learning to do all those things together, Timothy said.

“I think we’re getting the hang of it,” Timothy said. “We’re doing pretty well.”

The group has been practicing every Thursday night for about three years, said Barclay, who has played bagpipes for 58 years. The group originated from a weeklong bagpipes camp for kids hosted by some adult members of the Utah Pipe Band.

It’s taken several years to get the members playing full sets of bagpipes, and now, they’re ready to compete, Barclay said. The group’s debut performance was at a Utah Pipe Band concert in February.

Now, the kids have become good friends and come to practices together, he said.

“This is really a fun thing,” Barclay said. “It’s quite a novelty to have these young guys take up such a difficult instrument.”

About 11 or 12 of the members will play in the group that competes Saturday, Barclay said.

The youngest member of the band is the 8-year-old bass drummer, who is responsible for keeping the rest of the group in time, he said. There are two high schoolers who are in the group, but the average age of the band is about 12 years old.

There are five areas in which the group will be judged Saturday, including marching, tuning and tone, and playing in unison, said Barclay, whose two oldest grandchildren play in the group.

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To learn how to do all those things well enough to enter a competition is no easy task, he said.

“That’s quite difficult when you have that many people marching into a circle and to a movement like that,” Barclay said.

Though they’re one of the younger bagpipe groups in competition, Barclay said there are two other high school groups that will also compete Saturday: one is from Payson and another is from Ben Lomond High School in Ogden.

For Barclay, who began playing the pipes at age 5 and started performing at age 11, it’s been a fulfilling experience to instruct the young band.

“It should be a good experience for them,” he said. “It reminds me of my childhood and it’s fun to be with them. They’re going to do really well.”

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