Music scales for quantizers

A handy reference chart for programming your synthesizers

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▲ 56 MUSIC SCALES | Because you're secretly hoping they'll identify with Locrian. (buy artwork / see all my art)

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is Music.
— Aldous Huxley

This single-page reference chart is a compact resource of 56 musical scales presented on a piano layout.

If you want all (literally) the scales, see A Study of Scales.

See my Music Theory Reference Chart for a deeper dive into scales, modes, and chords.

This handy chart shows 56 musical scales on a piano layout. Extremely useful for programming quantizers.

For the chart, I've selected ones that cover the range of diatonic, harmonic, jazz, symmetric, and international families. Some of the scales are quite esoteric — such as the enigmatic scales. There should be something here for almost everyone.

Why 56? That's what I could fit on a US letter (8.5" × 11") page, balancing visibility with compactness. Font size is 7 pt, which is the largest possible before labels start spilling into adjacent scales.

Have a suggestion or see an error? Email me.

Version 1.0.9 (17 Jun 2026) | Download: PDF (US letter) / PNG (600 dpi) / plain-text

▲ MUSIC THEORY REFERENCE CHART | A single-page reference chart of 56 music scales covering diatonic, harmonic, jazz, symmetric, and international families.

Music Theory Reference Chart ·

This single-page reference chart is a compact resource that allows you to answer common questions about intervals, scales, chords and modes.

Know the rules but go your own way.

All scales are shown starting at C.

The major modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian) are transposed to start on C.

A scale's personality is completely derived from distribution of its intervals relative to the root.

The reason why modes of the major scale sound different is due entirely to the location of their minor seconds.

For example, Locrian is considered the darkest mode. This can be explained by the fact that it's the only mode without a perfect fifth (G). Instead, Locrian offers the diminished fifth (G ♭). The other aspect of Locrian that adds to its darkness is the presence of the minor second (just like Phrygian), which provides a somewhat unsettling and enigmatic way to reach the root (D ♭ to C).

I show the location of all minor seconds (solid line) and minor thirds (dashed line) in each scale.

By paying attention the positions of these intervals (instead of the notes), you can learn a lot about the scale. Look at that 8-tone Spanish scale — three consecutive minor seconds!

Some of the international scales have intervals longer than a minor third. For example, the Japanese In Sen scale has a major third. These longer intervals are not explicitly called out.

Some scales on the chart are modes of other scales on the chart. In other words, some scales are transpositions of others.

Below each scale, you'll find an index for the scale (bold number) followed by a list of these modes.

For example, the C major scale is the A mode of the minor scale (6A). If we take a minor scale and start it on A, we get the same notes as in the C major scale.

Dorian is a mode of the major scale that starts on B ♭, and hence it's annotated with 1 ♭. Equivalently, the C major scale is a mode of the Dorian scale that starts on D (2D).

A more interesting example of modes is the Egyptian scale (C, D, F, G, B ♭, 54), which is a B ♭ mode of the pentatonic major (24 ♭) and G mode of the pentatonic minor (25G).

17 scales on the chart are unique and do not have transpositions.

100110110101 2485  9 | harmonic major | C D E F G Ab B | 0 2 4 5 7 8 11
100110100111 2471 11 | double harmonic major | C Db D F G Ab B | 0 1 2 5 7 8 11
011011011001 1753 14 | hungarian major | C Eb E Gb G A Bb | 0 3 4 6 7 9 10
100110101011 2475 16 | neapolitan minor | C Db Eb F G Ab B | 0 1 3 5 7 8 11
111010110101 3765 21 | beebop dominant | C D E F G A Bb B | 0 2 4 5 7 9 10 11
001010110101 0693 28 | hexatonic major | C D E F G A | 0 2 4 5 7 9
100010101101 2221 29 | hexatonic minor | C D Eb F G B | 0 2 3 5 7 11
011001010101 1621 33 | prometheus (Scriabin scale) | C D E Gb A Bb | 0 2 4 6 9 10
110101010011 3411 34 | enigmatic ascending | C Db E Gb Ab Bb B | 0 1 4 6 8 10 11
110100110011 3379 35 | enigmatic descending | C Db E F Ab Bb B | 0 1 4 5 8 10 11
010101111011 1403 36 | 8-tone spanish (gypsy) | C Db Eb E F Gb Ab Bb | 0 1 3 4 5 6 8 10
011011010011 1747 37 | half-whole diminished | C Db Db E Gb G A Bb | 0 1 1 4 6 7 9 10
011111011011 2011 41 | Tcherepnin (Messiaen Mode 4) | C Db Eb E Gb G Ab A Bb | 0 1 3 4 6 7 8 9 10
100101110011 2419 42 | persian | C Db E F Gb Ab B | 0 1 4 5 6 8 11
000110000011 0387 50 | pelog | C Db Db G Ab | 0 1 1 7 8
001001100011 0611 53 | ethiopian anchihoye | C Db F Gb A | 0 1 5 6 9
000111001011 0459 56 | raga todi | C Db Eb Gb G Ab | 0 1 3 6 7 8

The first two fields are the binary representation of the scale (indicating which notes are present) and its decimal equivalent. The third field is the index of the scale used on the chart.

Count along ·

Like music with numbers? Try Angels at My Door (Una), Pt vs Ys (Yoshinori Sunahara), 2wicky (Hooverphonic), One (Aimee Mann), Straight to Number One (Touch and Go), 99 luftbaloons (Nena), and Aquarius (Boards of Canada)

You can download a list of all scales and their modes on the chart.

All sharps are expressed as their enharmonic flats.

The first four fields are the scale's root, binary representation (indicating which notes are present), decimal equivalent of binary representation, and the scale's numerical index on the chart.

For example, this line

scale a  011101010101 1877 15 | neapolitan major | A Bb C D E Gb Ab | 9 10 0 2 4 6 8 | 1 [arabian E]{43E}

tells us that the Neoapolitan major scale on A (A, B ♭, C, D, E, G ♭, A ♭) is the E mode of the Arabian scale (43E).

Some scales are their own modes.

scale d  011001100110 1638 30 | augmented hexatonic | D F Gb A Bb Db | 2 5 6 9 10 1 | \
2 [augmented hexatonic Gb]{30Gb} [augmented hexatonic Bb]{30Bb}

tells us that the augmented hexatonic (30) scale starting on D (D, F, G ♭, A, B ♭, D ♭) is the same as augmented hexatonic (i.e., itself) starting on G ♭ (30G ♭) and B ♭ (30B ♭).

1.0.9 — Adjusted text size and spacing.

1.0.8 — Adjusted text size and padding. Moved this chart to its own page.

1.0.7 — Added more scales (now 56), index identifiers, and cross-referenced modes. Minor thirds are shown by dotted lines. Removed vertical layout support.

1.0.4 — Added 6 more scales to horizontal layout (super locrian, beebop major, beebop minor, octatonic, augmented, tritone).

1.0.3 — Notes that are a semitone apart are now connected by lines in the horizontal layout. Simplified some labels and tightened their spacing in the vertical layout.

1.0.2 — Fixed second vertical layout to match Intellijel's Scale button arrangement, which puts the low C at the bottom.

1.0.1 — Fixed label position. Added two vertical layouts.

1.0.0 — Started and posted on Modwiggler.

The chart uses the Futura typeface for text and digits.

The flat symbol ( ♭) is rendered in Norfolk. The Norfolk family of fonts is a derivative of Bravura that is expressly reconfigured to work within Sibelius. Bravura is the first SMuFL-compliant music font family, designed by Daniel Spreadbury at Steinberg for Dorico, its scoring application.