World Scales · Verified Alignment Table

Exotic Scales, Decoded: The Alignment Table

Every "exotic" scale sold to guitarists as a new alien alphabet is actually a short recipe applied to a scale you already know: take a diatonic mode, delete a note or two, sometimes add a Missing Note. The table below is the verified alignment — each scale's Address in the Dead Sea Scales system, tested computationally.

The 12-TET Exact Table

These scales live natively on your fretboard — every interval is a clean half-step multiple.

Scale	Origin	Address — the recipe
Man Gong	Chinese	Pentatonic, Phrygian position
Hirajoshi	Japanese	Aeolian − 4 − ♭7
Iwato	Japanese	Locrian − ♭3 − ♭6
In / Sakura	Japanese	Phrygian − ♭3 − ♭7
Insen	Japanese	Phrygian − ♭3 − ♭6
Kumoi	Japanese	Dorian − 4 − ♭7
Hijaz (Maqam)	Arabic	Phrygian − ♭3 + Harmonic note
Bhairav	Indian	Ionian − 2 − 6 + Melodic + Harmonic
Marva	Indian	Lydian − 2 + Quest
Hungarian Minor	Hungarian	Aeolian − 4 − ♭7 + Blues + Harmonic
Persian	Persian	Locrian − ♭3 − ♭7 + Blues + Bebop
Hungarian Major	Hungarian (Bartók)	Dorian − 2 − 4 + Quest + Harmonic — Orphan #1
Enigmatic (Verdi)	Italian	Locrian − ♭3 − 4 + Blues + Bebop — a true multi-family edge case

≈ The Microtonal Shelf — approximations only

Honesty clause: some of the world's greatest scales are not built on half-step separation at all. Quarter-tone maqamat (Bayati, Rast, Saba, Sikah, Huzzam), gamelan tunings (Pelog, Slendro) and Ethiopian qenet (Tezeta, Ambassel) use intervals that fall between the frets of a standard guitar. Twelve-tone equal temperament — and therefore this system — can only approximate them.

Scale	Tradition	Nearest 12-TET shadow
Maqam Bayati	Arabic (quarter-tone)	≈ Dorian − 2 + Blues
Maqam Rast / Sikah / Saba	Arabic (quarter-tone)	≈ approximations only — the defining notes sit between frets
Pelog	Indonesian gamelan	≈ Phrygian − 4 − ♭7
Slendro	Indonesian gamelan	≈ a near-even pentatonic no fret can honestly reach
Tezeta / Ambassel	Ethiopian qenet	≈ pentatonic approximations

The interactive tools keep this same separation: Eastern 12-TET scales get their own shelf, and anything authentically microtonal is labeled ≈ 12-TET approx instead of being passed off as the real thing. Respect for the traditions includes admitting where the fretboard stops. Why the West is only now reaching between the frets →