Today we’d like to introduce you to Preston Dow.
Preston, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Ever since I was a child I was creating or performing. Before I got heavily into the guitar around age 13 I was drawing comic strips, performing in musicals and acting, doing improv comedy and just about anything else I could get involved in.
Music was something my dad had always shown me – mostly classic rock – and while he wasn’t necessarily a great guitarist he would strum his acoustic around the house all the time. As I got more serious about learning guitar I began taking lessons out of our neighborhood music store. I passed through a few more instructors before arriving in Nashville, TN to study commercial music at Belmont University.
After several years of formal education and playing in bands around town, I gravitated toward teaching lessons. This was a logical step for me due to my combined love for learning and music. Aptitude tests, meetings with counselors and introspection repeatedly showed me that I had a gift for teaching, so giving lessons seemed like both the most logical and fun path to take. I began teaching with a company in 2015. While I had done volunteer work in schools before this and would teach my friends tips and tricks all the time, this was my first true exposure to the professional teaching world.
Eventually as I learned more tools of the trade, I started taking the teaching into my own hands, similarly to how I started my own band to play my original songs. Now my business is underway and my band Howard and the Nosebleeds is about to release its first album. There is a certain excitement that comes from seeing a student who loves music have a lightbulb moment with the guitar. By sharing the insights and breakthroughs I came across in my earlier years I found I can help students learn faster and more efficiently than I was able to myself.
Has it been a smooth road?
There have definitely been tough moments. At one company I taught at, I had to teach drums to our biggest investor’s son – a tough task for someone who had spent maybe a total of two hours behind a drum kit prior to that strange assignment.
Being a musician is a road full of ups and downs, playing live and traveling come with all sorts of technical and emotional difficulties but the music itself has always been there to help see me through the difficult moments and teach me about myself as I go on. It seems my favorite music always changes and grows along with me; I am able to find and hear new things as I find new parts of myself. And of course, anyone will tell you the pay when you start out as a musician isn’t always great and in the earlier days when I was still finding what I wanted to do it wasn’t as fun as it is now.
I’m much happier now that I have much more creative freedom – whether I’m playing in my group or instructing. There’s also the simple fact that some students take to the instrument quicker and more naturally than others. I’ve learned along the way that the instructor’s job is so much more than just transferring skill or musical data to a student; it’s truly a relationship and a journey that you take together, as corny as that may sound. Not every student will be or wants to be a virtuoso or even a full-time musician. The fact remains that music is a therapeutic outlet, a worthwhile pursuit, and an opportunity to learn life lessons. A guitar can be a passage into your own personal world of emotions…
Without going too far into detail, my father was an alcoholic and this made my adolescence incredibly difficult. The guitar became my main outlet, a way for me to feel connected to exciting things, to achieve and to have fun when my social life and family life were not so together. I think music can really reach people who see themselves (and who others see) as outsiders, and the healing aspect plays a key role in my passion for teaching and playing music. I have made the best friends and relationships in my life by connecting to people over music had the most fun playing music, and found a true path and place in a world that seemed frightening and impossible because of the depth of my respect, dedication, and love of music.
Years later, my father passed due to complications from his addiction. By playing guitar I feel my connection to him all the time, and in many ways, I do it for him. I want to show people that there is a way to deal with and feel these difficult feelings that we all experience that doesn’t have to involve self-destruction or rock star cliches. Whether a person is religious or spiritual or not, we can see that music, along with all other forms of art, is one of the most special things in life and can serve as a safe place and way to process the trials and tribulations of living in the world that we do.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Guitar Lessons by Preston Dow story. Tell us more about the business.
I teach guitar lessons that are personally curated to the skill level, taste, learning style and goals of each student. What sets me apart from many teachers is that I combine what I’ve learned in the worlds of the avant-garde, rock-n-roll, punk, folk, and funk with the knowledge I acquired in the academic world. My hands-on experience is not just that of a “hired gun” – which I don’t look down upon, as that’s how I got my start as a musical performer – but also a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader.
Many teachers specialize in one method or another, while I have studied and learned several styles and combine them into a unique approach for each students’ needs. I’ve studied the CAGED method as well as the works of John Cage. I have learned the discographies of my favorite artists so that I can create my own and help those with the desire to do so! I believe learning theory can be simple, fun and a creative exercise, yet if a student desires to bypass it I have no trouble doing so as I got my start playing by ear!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I enjoy teaching and would hope to have a few serious students – even ones I can teach via video-chat technology no matter what my path is. One of my goals is to take my band around the world and continue to record original music, but that is not my singular goal. I fully believe in the therapeutic power of music and could see myself working as a music therapist for children and adults with autism, other special needs, and even PTSD.
I would love to have a small music school of my own, a recording studio or a music shop – maybe some blend of the three. I know it would be a lot of work but I think I would love every minute of it! With the rise of the internet I hope to do more out of the city, out of state, and even international students via video chat so I am not limited to simply one area. I would love to develop my teaching practice further and if I find that I have a method book or an instructional DVD in me, with something truly new to say, then I’d love to put that out there!
Pricing:
- $45 an hour with a $5 travel fee if I come to you!
Contact Info:
- Phone: 832-867-0291
- Email: prestondow@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pdowguitar/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/howardandthenosebleeds/
Image Credit:
Karan Sharma, Kirby Trapolino, Wanderson Rezende, David Michael Lippold, Molimar Molina, Thanet Taout
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