Lexicon of Scales
For centuries, musicians have worked within a narrow band of possibilities: the "major" and "minor" scales, and perhaps a dozen others. Yet within the Western system of music, there exist 1,490 distinct scales, each capable of unlocking a unique harmonic world.
Consider the standard piano keyboard, with white and black keys. Just the white keys is a ‘scale’ — there are seven notes, ‘A’ through ‘G’, before the pattern of keys starts over again. And depending on which key you start on — ‘A”, or ‘B’, etc. — you’ll get a different musical color. Each of these is a ‘mode’. Just the white keys is known as the ‘diatonic scale’, and each of the seven ‘modes’ has its own name. One of those modes is the ‘major scale’, and another the ‘minor’. So each scale contains multiple modes, like facets of a gem, revealed by starting on different notes within the scale.
Of course if you don't restrict yourself to the Western chromatic keyboard, the possibilities are even more vast.
The Lexicon of Scales gathers these possibilities in a compact, composer-friendly form. It is not merely a collection but an invitation to venture beyond the familiar and discover new sonic landscapes.
May this serve as a gateway to realms yet unheard.
—Theo, Musical Alchemist of GrailHeart
For an in-depth discussion, see my site AllTheScales.org