Many features of aluminosilicate glasses incorporating a rare-earth (RE) ion are dictated by its mass and cation field strength (CFS). ScAlSiO glasses are interesting because Sc3+ exhibits the highest CFS but the lowest mass of all RE3+ ions. We explore relationships between the glass composition and several physical properties, such as density, glass-transition temperature (Tg), Vickers hardness, and refractive index, over the glass forming region of the ternary Sc2O3Al2O3SiO2 system. The glasses exhibit uniform and unexpectedly low Tg-values (similar to 875 degrees C), but a high microhardness (approximate to 9.3 GPa) that correlates with the Sc2O3 content. 29Si magic-angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy shows enhanced deshielding and a minor glass-network ordering as either the Al or Sc content of the glass increases. 27Al MAS NMR reveals that besides the expected AlO4 tetrahedra, substantial amounts of AlO5 (31%35%) and AlO6 (approximate to 5%) polyhedra are present in all ScAlSiO glass structures. 45Sc isotropic chemical shifts (similar to 92 ppm) derived from MAS and 3QMAS (triple-quantum MAS) NMR experiments are consistent with ScO6 environments.