A music scale usually refers to a progression of single notes upwards or downwards in steps. The word “scale” comes from the Latin “la scala” which means “ladder”, so a musical scale is a ladder of notes that runs from the root note to the octave note (octave means “eight”, as in octopus, octagon, etc., so eight notes.) Most beginners in music are introduced to the concept of scales very early in their training. Despite this, it sometimes takes a few years of training to get good understanding of how scales work.