Music scales for quantizers

A handy reference chart for programming your synthesizers

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.

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.

This handy chart shows 56 musical scales on a piano layout.

Version 1.0.8 (16 Jun 2026) | Download: PDF (US letter) / PNG (600 dpi) / plain-text | Have a suggestion or see an inconsistency or error? Email me.

▲ MUSIC THEORY REFERENCE CHART | A single-page reference chart for intervals, scales, chords, and modes.

All scales are shown starting at C.

Some scales have names that are typically associated with a mode of the major scale. For example, Dorian is a mode of the major scale that starts on D. However, on this chart, Dorian is treated as a scale and shown with C as the root. It's essentially the Dorian major mode transposed down a tone.

I show the location of all minor seconds (solid line) and minor thirds (dashed line) in the scale — their position is what gives a scale much of its character. Look at that 8-tone Spanish scale — three consecutive minor seconds!

Some scales on the chart are modes of other scales on the chart. Below each scale, you'll find an index for the scale (bold) followed by these modes.

For example, the C major scale is the A mode of the minor scale (6A). In other words, 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).

Here are scales on the chart whose modes do not appear as other scales on the chart. 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.

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

notes of infinity ·

Love music and science? Explore my collaboration with Max Cooper where we tell the story of infinities and animate the digits of π. Both tracks appear on Max's Yearning for the Infinite album.

You can download a list of all scales and their modes on the chart. All sharps are expressed as their enharmonic flats.

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♭).

1.0.8 — 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 3rds 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.