5 Pointers On Nervous Situations Within Your Control - Part 3

June 05, 2025•4 min read

"...may it be our prayer that even when we experience stress or nerves from these situations or triggers, that the Lord would help us respond in such a way that He is glorified and praised through it."

Over the last several weeks, we've been examining various triggers that can cause feelings of nervousness, anxiety, or fear in different situations we may encounter as church piano players.

This week, we come to our final point under the heading of Nervous Situations Within Your Control, and that is...

Getting the songs too late in the week

If this is you, you have my heartfelt sympathy. It happens to many of us, and it’s not a nice experience.

Now, you may have thought this should be in the “out of my control” category, which could be true if all the songs are chosen for you, and given late in the week.

But having said that, there are at least 2 things you can do to lessen the nerves and anxiety you may have when this happens.

Firstly, as mentioned in a previous post, you can initiate a conversation with your pastor, or the leader who is choosing the songs, and see if it’s possible to get them earlier. Even as they choose each one is still better than nothing. Be sure to explain why, and that you want to make sure you know the songs well before Sunday, so you can lead effectively.

This isn’t always easy, if the songs are chosen for you, as pastors are often finishing their message off later, rather than earlier, in the week. That being said, they normally have a good idea of the text ahead of time, and should be able to select most of the songs, even if there’s a really specific one they end up choosing nearer to Sunday.

So I encourage you to do that if you can.

Secondly, you can suggest the idea of using what I call “A Song Pool” to minimize the nerves that come from getting songs too late.

This would have to be cleared with your leadership, but it’s worth running it past them.

A Song Pool is basically a selection of maybe 20, 30 or 40 songs, that are pre-selected and vary in theme/style, which then, for a period of 2 or 3 months, you only use those songs.

The benefits here are that the congregation get to know the songs really well which leads to more full and focused singing. The songs can be practiced anytime and you can get familiar with them all. That way, you won’t be taken by surprise with getting songs late in the week - as you will already know them!

While this can be more work initially, it does pay off in the end.

So, there you have it - 10 pointers on how to deal with different stressful or nervous situations that we will, more or less, experience in our roles as church piano players. Just to recap, here is the list again...

Under the category of “Out Of Our Control”:

And then, under the category of “Within Our Control”:

Fear of playing wrong notes / making mistakes
Expectations that others have of us in our role
Having to play a difficult song
Lack of preparation / practice on our part
Getting the songs too late in the week

As we seek to apply these practical pointers to our role as church piano players, may it be our prayer that even when we experience stress or nerves from these situations or triggers, that the Lord would help us respond in such a way that He is glorified and praised through it.

[Return to The Church Piano Player Website]

This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back from New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.

Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.