Graham Breed's MOS naming scheme

The following MOS naming system was originally proposed by Graham Breed.

Names for MOS scales with up to 4 notes

• 1L 1s Trivial MOS
• 1L 2s Happy triad
• 2L 1s Grumpy triad
• 1L 3s Happy tetrad
• 2L 2s bi-equal tetrad
• 3L 1s Grumpy tetrad

Names for MOS scales with 5 to 10 notes, as proposed by Graham Breed

The logic behind new names is as follows:

Happy and Grumpy are remnants of the dwarf scheme. A good proportion of the shapes fit this pattern, so it's worth having a word for it.

Biggie is a contraction of "bi-grumpy". Rice is named after Rice Kagona.

Bicycle is a contraction of "bi-classical". This family is like the usual fifth-generated one, but half the size.

Mosh is a contraction of "mohajiraish". Mish is related to mosh.

Father is a temperament name. I think the etymology is a pun on "fourths/thirds" and as such names a shape.

Bug is another temperament name, from the draft of the first part of Paul's forthcoming magnum opus. If it's too specific to apply to this family, I suggest "bogey" instead.

"Bi-equal" means the scale is made from two EDOs. There may be a better name for these. They become more important when you look at complicated temperaments.

I'm using "fair" and "unfair" to distinguish the large from the small.

All the names uniquely specify a shape, and if the number of notes doesn't need to be part of the name it isn't. That doesn't mean you'd leave them this terse in practice.

• 1L 4s Happy pentatonic
• 2L 3s classic pentatonic
• 3L 2s father (sometimes also called: anti-pentatonic)
• 4L 1s bug
• 1L 5s Happy hexatonic
• 2L 4s Rice hexatonic
• 3L 3s augmented
• 4L 2s bicycle
• 5L 1s Grumpy hexatonic
• 1L 6s Happy heptatonic
• 2L 5s mavila (other common name: anti-diatonic)
• 3L 4s mosh
• 4L 3s mish
• 5L 2s diatonic
• 6L 1s Grumpy heptatonic
• 1L 7s Happy octatonic
• 2L 6s Rice octatonic
• 3L 5s fair father
• 4L 4s diminished
• 5L 3s unfair father
• 6L 2s Biggie octatonic
• 7L 1s Grumpy octatonic
• 1L 8s Happy nonatonic
• 2L 7s fair mavila
• 3L 6s fair augmented
• 4L 5s fair bug
• 5L 4s unfair bug
• 6L 3s unfair augmented
• 7L 2s unfair mavila
• 8L 1s Grumpy nonatonic
• 1L 9s Happy decatonic
• 2L 8s Rice decatonic
• 3L 7s fair mosh
• 4L 6s fair bicycle
• 5L 5s bi-equal decatonic
• 6L 4s unfair bicycle
• 7L 3s unfair mosh
• 8L 2s Biggie decatonic
• 9L 1s Grumpy decatonic

Names for larger MOS scales

• 8L 3s Sensi[11]
• 6L 5s Machine[11]
• 4L 7s Keemun[11]
• 10L 2s Pajara[12]
• 9L 3s August[12]
• 7L 5s Meantone[12]
• 6L 6s Hexe[12]
• 5L 7s Superpyth[12]
• 4L 8s Diminished[12]
• 3L 9s Augene[12]
• 2L 10s Injera[12]
• 12L 2s Injera[14]
• 5L 9s Godzilla[14]
• 4L 10s Doublewide[14]
• 11L 4s Superkleismic[15]
• 10L 5s Blacksmith[15]
• 8L 7s Opossum[15]
• 7L 8s Porcupine[15]
• 4L 11s Myna[15]
• 1L 14s Valentine[15]
• 6L 10s Wizard[16]
• 5L 11s Mothra[16]
• 14L 3s Squares[17]
• 12L 5s Garibaldi[17]
• 10L 7s Beatles[17]
• 7L 10s Mohajira[17]
• 16L 3s Muggles[19]
• 12L 7s Meantone[19]
• 10L 9s Negri[19]
• 8L 11s Sensi[19]
• 7L 12s Flattone[19]
• 6L 13s Hemiwuerschmidt[19]
• 4L 15s Myna[19]
• 3L 16s Magic[19]
• 2L 17s Tritonic[19]
• 3L 17s Roman[20]
• 10L 11s Miracle[21]
• 5L 16s Rodan[21]
• 2L 19s Tritonic[21]
• 19L 3s Magic[22]
• 12L 10s Diaschismic[22]
• 9L 13s Orwell[22]
• 7L 15s Coendou[22]
• 6L 16s Wizard[22]
• 2L 20s Shrutar[22]
• 15L 8s Hemikleismic[23]
• 13L 10s Unidec[23]
• 3L 20s Roman[23]
• 7L 17s Mohajira[24]
• 6L 19s Luna[25]
• 18L 9s Ennealimmal[27]
• 14L 13s Octacot[27]
• 17L 12s Leapday[29], Grackle[29]
• 12L 17s Garibaldi[29]