Originally Posted By: Jim Fogle
The short answer is that there are 48 total major and minor scales. The long answer? It could be more than 200, more than 25,000 or infinity depending on the definition.

Jim, in my searches I also came across that exact quote. FWIW, infinity to me sounds like it's based on a very non-useful definition (for musicians) of what a scale is.

Here is an interesting and quite bold quote I found.

“There are 2048 scales in music, no more, no less. 12 of them are intervals (scales with only two notes), and 344 of the other 2036 scales are source scales”

And these people have built an encyclopedia.
https://mdecksmusic.com/2020/01/25/a-universal-encyclopedia-of-scales/

Somewhere at this site look for a video that rapidly scrolls thru each one. You need to be "Data" on Star Trek to absorb it all but it's fun to watch and think about.

Obviously, I'm way out of my league on this subject but I'd guess that if we talk about the number of practical and useful scales for musicians (worldwide), that the number is even fewer than 2048.

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