From Dead Sea Scales: The 5 Missing Notes™ by Christopher Dean
The Book of Dean is the final section of the Dead Sea Scales™ curriculum — 33 rules drawn from three decades as a guitarist, touring musician, guitar tech, and music teacher. Most apply directly to mastering guitar. All of them apply to life.
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a supercomputer spent 7.5 million years calculating the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. The answer was 42. Nobody understood it because they'd forgotten the question. Music theory has the same problem — a thousand years of variables piled on top of 7 notes. The answer was always there. 7 notes. 5 missing. 42 modes. These 33 rules are how I remember the question.
— Christopher Dean
The road to "fun" takes hard work — but it's still fun. Go to shows. Ask questions to musicians you admire. Buy a new piece of gear and spend hours discovering new sounds that inspire new songs. Some of the best moments behind a guitar happen alone in a room, just jamming.
Don't treat it like work. Just play. Use the investigative note approach from the 5 Missing Notes™ system. There's always a sweet spot within reach — you just have to mess around to find it.
Focus. Rotate between WRITE, LEARN, PERFORM, PERFECT, RECORD, MOVE ON. Our brains move in cycles — learn to work with yours, not against it. Some reps are better than no reps.
It doesn't matter how fast you can shred if the excess string noise simultaneously sounds like whales mating. Muting is a two-hand job. Don't throw mud on the Mona Lisa.
Go slowly and focus on left/right-hand alignment timing. The true secret to going fast is first going slowly with laser focus. When you shred at lightning speed, you're not hearing your smallest mistakes — and those mistakes don't get fixed.
The note you hear only sounds and feels the way it does because of the notes surrounding it. A bumping chorus only exists because the verse set up the tension first. You have to know what you want to say before you say it.
If you squeeze too hard, besides making notes sharp, you'll slow your movement and create string noise. Thumb behind the middle finger. Split the workload between all fingers. Imagine the guitar neck hand version of slouching — fix your posture.
Just when you've given everything you've got, when there's no more steam in your tank — in that moment, dig deeper than you ever have. When the load-in is up three flights of stairs and the elevator is broken and the air conditioning doesn't work: you push forward. "If you want to be the best, you gotta go through the worst."
"Life battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can." — Bruce Lee. Persistence at your own pace. Follow your instincts while honing what makes you most unique. You will not be successful in your future if you cannot let go of your past.
Life is a repeating series of inclines followed by plateaus followed by inclines. The incline is the work. Once you reach the plateau, you may feel like you "did it." Truth is, you don't. Just ahead stands the next incline. Be open to the fact that learning never ends.
In any team, be the one who lifts it in darkness. A negative attitude sinks a ship faster than a team can keep it afloat. The bigger person walks away — and also has the better career.
I learned pinch harmonics from a conversation in a 7-Eleven parking lot. I learned to book shows by calling venues. Persistence is key. Most answers come with requirements — that's not rejection, that's direction.
The best advice ever received: a Myspace DM from Steve Zing, bassist of Danzig: "Never Stop." Years later, Christopher plays bass with Tommy Victor (Danzig's guitarist) in Prong — a band that released their first records when he was 2 years old. If you keep going, you will do what you set out to do.
I don't agree with Chaos Theory. Instead of punching a wall when you're angry, grab your tools and make your art. It doesn't matter what it looks like. What you feel will appear into existence. There are movies made about songs inspired by comic books inspired by novels inspired by a mother's bedtime stories. It doesn't matter where it starts. Just create.
"If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don't let some idiot talk you out of it." — Stan Lee. From picking up a guitar, to performing with legacy bands on international tours, to writing a book that disrupts the music theory community — every step had opposition. Nothing is impossible. You know what you want. Now go get it.
My entire life has had impossible tasks stacked up in front of me — same as everyone else — but those tasks are easily accomplishable if there is even a remote attachment to music. Playing music helped me find my place. I was able to find my way through life while I was behind a guitar.
— Christopher Dean
All 42 modes · Interactive fretboard · Audio playback · Free PDF posters
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