The most intimidated you've ever been?
 

About 5 years ago I got to hang with Alex Masi in West Hollywood. We'd become buds via the Shawn Lane forum I ran.

Alex Masi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We had lunch, talked about our shared influences (Ritchie Blackmore and Robin Trower the most obvious) and ended up back at his apt. Lots of guitars and amps lying around. I asked him to play something for me.

He handed me a guitar and said: YOU FIRST.

I was just about shaking playing in front of him.

I go to a weekly class/jam session thingie. Pretty chill, basically just people exchanging tips and having fun and ****.

But they almost always push me out of my comfort zone musically, which is great.

My Grade 6 piano exam last year. I was doing one classical piece with a lot of long runs. If you're tense, you can't play them. Thankfully, the lady giving the exam had a signed recent picture of Billy Joel doing his stunned face on the wall. I just looked at it the whole time.

Last job interview I had for the position I currently hold. Was very under-qualified for the job, lucky they took me in on faith based on a good reference.

I almost got abducted by a Nicaraguan taxi driver once. He was screaming in my face, telling me that the bus I was about to take out of the extremely dangerous black market was going to rip me off, and I had to come with him, NOW. I never found out whether he was a kidnapper or just a very loud concerned citizen looking out for my well being, because I decided to run away. I had a friend pick me up instead. It took a long time, but better a long wait than a shanked cut and stolen organs.

Just realized this thread is in Talk Instruments, so I guess you're looking for intimidating situations in music, my bad.

Last Halloween our band was doing a party gig with some other local bands, we were encouraged to dress up. I had this weird full face pigeon mask that I had ordered from China. I'm not sure if intimidated is the right word for it, but once we started playing I knew it was going to be a rough ride. Anyone who has worn a full latex mask while playing knows how badly sound is distorted inside the mask, everything rings and just grates your eardrums into a pulp. Combine that with being a little drunk, having not practiced as a unit in two weeks, tripping circuit breakers, and you've got yourself a terribly messy performance. We were all off that night, totally sucked.

Lucky everyone in the crowd was hammered too, they seemed to enjoy it.

Bumping this for the newer members/players.

A few months after I started playing guitar I was working on a children's show as a sound guy (can't really be fancy and say 'audio engineer' as I do now, as I didn't really do any engineering) and had a crush on the girl that played Snow White.

One of the guys who was playing Prince Charming brought an acoustic guitar to occupy his time in between the matinee and evening show, and some of the little children in the show dragged everyone out to listen because he let them play his harmonicas and they fancied they were a band.

Eventually he pried out of me that I "play" (I say it in quotations, because again, it was about four-ish months after I started) and handed me the guitar to play. My crush, and a few other people in the "crowd", asked me to play something. I was insanely nervous.

Luckily as soon as I got the guitar I noticed his strings were abhorrently disgusting. They had what appeared to be sweat and skin follicles crystallized into a green gunk. I handed the guitar back to the guy who owned it and quickly sought hand sanitizer.

She, adorably, ended up apologizing for the rest of the break.

Sadly, I haven't seen her since the end of the run.

About five years back my brother and I were doing some blues/grungy music and had landed a spot in the local blues festival. Unfortunately it was one of those type of shows where you have to play through all of their provided equipment,"No Exceptions" Not being familiar with the setup and having no one there to help out they pushed us out on stage, I had been having some wiring problems with my guitar cutting out before hand but soldered up everything and thought it was fixed. When we went to play I was getting no sound at all, the power light for the amp was on so I figured my guitar was just busted. I went back stage and asked one of the other acts if I could borrow their guitar ( I felt like such an ass just at that point however, they reluctantly agreed) but when I went back out I got no sound from his either. The stage people were just staring at me from the side and rushing me but offering no help. It was only then (5 minutes that seemed like an hour) that I realized the amps they had for everyone to use had a "Standby" option. as soon as I switched it and the sound came on I was relieved but really felt foolish for not realizing it straight away. I switched back to my guitar and the show went just fine, but it was really intimidating having a street full of people looking up at me wondering what I was waiting for. I hate using equipment I am not familiar with and not getting a sound check :(

I started palying gigs when I was 15. For the first two years I would panic before every show, my hands were shaking and I used to ruin songs, my bandmates wanted to kill me.
After palying for almost 10 years i finally feel confiedent enough to the point that if somebody puts me on the spot I know that there are certain things I can nail raight of the bat and sound good. Confidence I something I had to learn with experience.