Last evening Marjorie and I read “To Become a World-Class Expert” on page 196 of I Have No Greater Joy.  The point of the article is that 10,000 hours of practice is necessary to make one an expert in anything.  Ten-thousand hours is a long time.  I got to wondering if Marjorie qualifies as an expert piano player.

Marjorie began taking piano lessons from Mrs. Coates in the third grade when she was eight years old.  She loved it.  It became a passion.  In a very short time she was asked to be the accompanist for the junior Sunday School at church, and then for the weekday Primary meetings.  Each Wednesday after school Elaine Crum would stop in front of the Junior High School building to pick Marjorie up to take her to Primary.  The old station wagon was filled to overflowing with children that she'd picked up at the elementary schools.  The children all leaned out of the windows watching for Marjorie to emerge from the building, and would enthusiastically yell, “Hi, Sister Hunt!”  It was embarrassing to that teenager to be seen getting into that old, wood-paneled station wagon with the see-through floorboards, but she enjoyed being able to play piano for the Primary.

At the beginning of her sophomore year the high school choir instructor wanted to organize a special singing group and asked for someone to be the accompanist.  One of Marjorie's friends volunteered her.  That led to her becoming the accompanist for the choirs for her three years of high school.

Mr. Smith, the choir instructor, would typically hand her a stack of music, such as all of the songs in the musical, “Oklahoma,” which he wanted the choir to perform.  He'd say, “Here, practice these.”

“Which ones?” Marjorie would ask.

“All of them.  I'm not sure which one we'll do first.”

Marjorie took them home, and practiced non-stop.  A boy in the ward once asked her, “Do you ever do anything else besides play piano?  Every time I go by your house you're sitting there playing.”

Which was true.  In order to be ready for whatever Mr. Smith wanted the choir to do the next day, Marjorie had to practice for hours.  She supposes that she practiced three hours every evening.  Even in the summer she says that she couldn't go by the piano without sitting down and playing.

Marjorie went off to college.  She went to BYU and majored in music.  Her father rented a piano, and had it delivered to the apartment which she shared with five other girls.  The girls were delighted.  Many of them used it, too.  Marjorie played just as much as she could, but was hampered because of not wanting to be in competition with the conversations of the visitors who were always there.

Marjorie had two years of college, enrolled for the third year, and had to drop her classes because of an appendicitis operation.  The operation did not go well, and healing took a long time.  That was quickly followed by marriage.  Marjorie never got to go back to the university and be a student.

Marjorie's husband hauled her off to Morocco, North Africa for 15 months where he was to serve as a linguist in the U.S. Navy.  Marjorie served the entire time as the pianist (and gospel doctrine teacher) in the tiny branch of the Church there.  She and her husband would go to the base as often as possible (which wasn't much) where she could practice on the organ at the base chapel.

Morocco was followed by nine months on the ranch at Haines.  Then it was back to BYU as the wife of a student.  Now she had a baby.  Her talents were used in both of the wards that she was in for the 2 ½ years that they were at BYU.

At one point it was arranged for a church organist from Salt Lake to come to Provo to give instructions on the organ.  The best organists in the area were asked to attend.  Marjorie's Provo 25^th Ward sent her.

Marjorie felt intimidated among all the self-confident, competent women who showed up for the first meeting.  She said not a word as the instructor taught and interacted with the class.  The lady gave the class an exercise to work on in preparation for the following week's class wherein each would have to perform the exercise in front of the whole group.  Marjorie worked on it.

The time came for the next class.  The only class member who was able to properly perform the assignment was Marjorie.  Thereafter the organ instructor looked straight at Marjorie and taught her for the rest of the class periods.

From Marjorie's marriage in September 1969 to April 1973, when they moved back to the ranch at Haines, must have been a difficult time for her.  She had no piano, and playing time and playing opportunities were very limited.  It was probably in 1973 that they heard an announcement on the radio.  A music company in Idaho was repossessing a piano, and wanted to sell it in the area rather than haul it back to the store.  For $500 they bought the piano.

It was the best purchase her husband ever made.  Thereafter she was constantly at the piano.  At first it was with just one little boy sitting on the bench beside her and singing.  Thereafter there were multiple children harmonizing and being with their mother.  They all loved it, and most learned how to play themselves.

During the next 50 years Marjorie was hardly ever without a calling in the Church to be an accompanist.

Marjorie inherited the old upright piano that she'd learned to play on.  It was put in a different room.  Both pianos were often playing at the same time.  Where Marjorie herself was concerned, it was not possible for her to walk by those pianos without sitting down to play.

She will be 75 next month.  The old upright piano has gone up the hill for her grandsons to play upon.  The other still sits in her living room, and she still can't pass it without playing for a few minutes.  She sits down with a complicated Mendelssohn piece in front of her.  The page is black with eighth notes.  She sight-reads it.  It's beautiful.  It's flawless as far as her delighted husband is concerned, but it's not flawless to her.  It must be played over and over until it's just right.

He loves the atmosphere and the feeling that her piano playing brings to their home.

Is she an expert yet, having put in 10,000 hours of practice?  Let's see:

Age 8 to 15.  8 years x 365 days/year  x 1 hour/day                      = 2,920 hours

3 high school years x 365 days/year x 3 hours/day                        = 3,285

2 years college x 365 days/year x 1 hour/day                                =    730

4 years Morocco and Haines = 208 weeks x 1 hour/week =    208

1973-2023 = 50 years = 18,250 days x ½ hour/day                      = 9,125

50 years of piano callings x 52 weeks/year x 1/2 hour/week         = 1,300

17,568 hours

17,500 hours at the piano.  These hours don't include her many years of teaching piano.  There are 8,760 hours in a year.  Marjorie has spent the equivalent of two years at the piano.

She is officially and unequivocally, an expert.