Name: Mark McDunn
Background: McDunn, 72, attended Western Kentucky University but credits his high school band instructor, Irving Talmadge of Proviso High School in Maywood, with starting his music education. McDunn has played in the United States Army Band, the CBS staff orchestra here and played trombone on more than 1,500 locally produced TV commercials. He is a professor emeritus at De Paul University. McDunn, a Chicago native, lives with his wife, Irene, in River Forest. They have two daughters and six grandchildren.
Years on the job: 49
What I consider the most important part of my job is to see that beginning students on the trumpet, trombone, tuba or cornet don’t get started with bad habits: puffing, too much pressure, a number of things. My youngest student is 8, and they range up to high school age. Even when I was working at CBS and teaching only on Saturdays, it was always a relief and great pleasure to spend my Saturday that way.
Now that I teach full time, I have 30 to 35 students a week in my studio in Naperville and three to five students at De Paul. For students who have played for many years before they come to me, it’s corrective surgery, so to speak. Some students at De Paul, after as many as nine years of playing, have massive problems to correct; others may be extremely well equipped but need to develop their performance attitude and mechanics as well as to learn about the marketing of their skill. Many great artists are poor marketers, and, as a result, they do their genius in the basement someplace.
I’m at De Paul on Monday and Friday, and on the other three days, I teach in Naperville. There I work from 3 in the afternoon to 8 and see eight to 11 students for half-hour lessons each day. I work straight through without a break for dinner, but if there’s a cancellation, I get a coffee break. My days at De Paul are not as intense since I have fewer students there.
Many students have problems because their parents rent an instrument and let them wing it for a while, so I need to correct the bad habits they’ve formed during that time. A typical problem is when a student tightens his facial muscles and diaphragm so tight that he or she makes a difficult job out of playing the instrument. I work on correcting that immediately.
With new students, there have been occasions when the instrument didn’t even come out of the case on the first lesson. A 10- or 11-year-old child doesn’t know what he or she will be dealing with in a lesson, and the pressure can be quite severe. If there is a tear flowing, I’ve lost the ball. So that beginning lesson is communication. What band are you in? That sort of thing. The parents usually understand, but to pay the fee and not get the horn out of the case is sort of a sales job on my part.
Then when we get the horn out, I just have them do some exercises with their lips, and then I ask them to pick the horn up. About 15 percent will get a note right away. Some have trouble because there’s too much facial tension, so I have to get them relaxed before we can get a note or two.
Then there is the occasional customer who cannot produce one note. Now there is a frustration for a teacher. The first time that happened may have been 40 years ago, and I didn’t realize then that the student was absolutely frozen. That’s why we talk first now, and that problem doesn’t happen anymore.
The most important factor in choosing an instrument for a child is the sound/pitch factor that attracts that child. If you turn kids loose at a display, the instrument they go to is probably the one they should be studying. They will go to the one that makes the sound that appeals to them.
When I get a new student, I always ask, “What attracted you to this trombone?” Here’s the worst answer: “My father played it, and there was one lying around the house.” He didn’t choose it; it was chosen for him. Still, we’ll try it, and sometimes they do very well. But other times they tell me they want to play something else. I’ll mention that to the mother or father, and sometimes it doesn’t go over very well. I’m trying to do the student a favor at that point. It’s clearer if they aren’t doing very well on the instrument.
If a new student comes in with a tuba, for instance, and I ask that question, and the answer is, “I like the tuba,” that’s the end of the conversation right there. It should work out just fine. Students who have the toughest time challenge my skill the most, and whatever aid I can give them to help them learn is one of the great pleasures I have.
A parent’s first hint that a child is ready for lessons is usually when he or she comes home from school and says there was a demonstration at the school and they were shown instruments. Sometimes the bandleader will give a report to the parents saying what the child seemed most adept at. I would say parents should wait for the child to express an interest, not push anything on them.
Many parents tell me they don’t want to see their children in show business. I always assure them that I would never tell somebody to go into that business. The competition is extremely tough. There are more greats of everything in Hollywood than anyplace else. But some people love that kind of challenge, and for them it’s wonderful.
My favorite part of this job is giving whatever I know, which includes sharing my experiences of teaching and playing here and abroad, to the students. I really enjoy explaining the simple things to the beginners, like how to hold the instrument correctly.
I really can’t say there’s anything about this job I don’t like. At my age I could retire, but I don’t want to. I don’t play golf; I don’t play tennis; I don’t play poker. My job is my recreation. I love it. I figure I’ve given 40,000 private lessons over the years.
My most unusual student was a 4-year-old who wanted to play the trumpet. I resisted because of his age, but I did take him on, and by the time he was 7 I had him as a featured player with my trombone choir at the De Paul concert hall. Talk about a performance attitude. When he missed a note he just plowed right through. He was terrific. (He’s now a 23-year-old college student who plays the trumpet as a sideline.)
A good student is one who needs recognition. He also needs to be a competitor, so that when he goes into a trumpet section or trombone section and he’s the youngest and he’s ninth chair, he’s going for first chair. You can tell it by the questions these kids ask: How can I play louder? How can I play higher? How can I play as well as the guy in the first chair? He’s the guy who will practice four hours a day to get there. And he needs to love the sound his instrument makes in order to do that.
