Beth Palmer on MormonTimes.com: Piano performance nerves and social capital

Last weekend, I found myself in the not-uncommon position of

accompanying a musical number during a church meeting. While it's a

very rare thing for me to be the most accomplished pianist in a ward, I

do find myself being called upon to play for a choir number or solo

with some degree of frequency.

Essentially, it's not something that strikes me as being a very big deal.

That's why I was a bit confused this time around at the degree of

nerves I felt leading up to the performance. I practiced a particularly

tricky section over and over again, and during the talk preceding the

number, I pulled out the music and tapped out the fingering against my

arm a few times to ease my mind.

It was while I was doing this that I had one of those moments where you

sort of stop mid-motion, sit up straight, look around — and ask

yourself \"What on earth is going on?\" inside your head.

Where were these nerves coming from? Why was I suddenly so concerned

about dropping too many notes, or accidentally hitting an off-key

clunker? If I were being honest, I'd have to admit that the vast

majority of accompaniments I've played have contained one of both of

these screw-ups, probably more than once. And I'd also have to admit

that I probably didn't think more than twice about them.

So what was different this time?

As it turns out, the answer was a pretty simple one: I'd never accompanied such a talented singer before.

I don't mean that as a knock against anyone I've played for in the

past, every one of whom has performed well and contributed greatly to