At the age of 14, he enrolled in the British Army (in the Royal Artillery Band, Woolwich) as a Boy Musician in order to continue his musical studies of the clarinet, harp and saxophone.
He was hired by EMI to arrange and conduct some of its most popular artists and, during this time, worked with Beatles producer George Martin (playing flute in the band's 1965 recording "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away").
As a musician, he played with The Julian Bream Consort, John Dankworth, Cleo Laine, Yehudi Menuhin, Nelson Riddle and Ravi Shankar.
Some of Scott's most praised and recognized scores are Antony and Cleopatra (1972), England Made Me (1973), North Dallas Forty (1979), The Final Countdown (1980), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) and The Shooting Party (1985).
His TV work includes the themes to the BBC current affairs programmes Nationwide and Midweek, incidental music for the ITV series Rosemary and Thyme, and documentaries by French explorer Jacques Cousteau.