The Player Behind the System

Christopher Dean: Prong Bassist, Teacher, Mapmaker

Christopher "Dean" Dean holds down the low end for Prong — the crossover institution behind Cleansing and "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" — heading into the band's current Napalm Records cycle. Thirty-plus years of playing and teaching sit underneath that stage time.

Credits & collaborations

Alongside Prong (Tommy Victor), Dean's résumé runs through Nita Strauss, Angel Vivaldi, Darrow Chemical Company, Alyxx, Darkness Descends, and years on faculty at School of Rock (Waldwick, Pasadena, Burbank, Venice) and Rockstar NOW. Gear partners and features include Ibanez, Fractal Audio, MONO Creators and WB Gear. Antihero Magazine called him "Mr. Zen of the Guitar World."

His level of care and dedication is only surpassed by his rocking talent.

— Dr. Evan Johnson, Asst. Professor, Columbia University Medical Center

Why a touring bassist drew a map of all music

Teaching two students at once — one on blues pentatonic, one on diatonic modes — Dean watched the shapes overlap and the missing notes line up. A ruler, graph paper and a pack of highlighters later, that observation became Dead Sea Scales™: The 5 Missing Notes — a system that connects all 2,048 note combinations in Western music back to one parent scale, tested against 135 historical scales from every tradition.

It lives three ways: the free interactive tool, the book on Amazon, and private lessons with Dean himself.

Find him

On tour with Prong · @deanmusicofficial · @deadseascales