structural:scholar_edition
Types of scale

Scales may be described according to the number of different pitch classes they contain:

Scales may also be described by their constituent intervals, such as being hemitonic, cohemitonic, or having imperfections. Many music theorists concur that the constituent intervals of a scale have a large role in the cognitive perception of its sonority, or tonal character.

"The number of the notes that make up a scale as well as the quality of the intervals between successive notes of the scale help to give the music of a culture area its peculiar sound quality." "The pitch distances or intervals among the notes of a scale tell us more about the sound of the music than does the mere number of tones."

Scales may also be described by their symmetry, such as being palindromic, chiral, or having rotational symmetry as in Messiaen's modes of limited transposition.