Thanks ChristopherSchegel as well for such a detailed answer. I think your tutoring style is great, by the way, it was just me that was struggling with all the info! :) I think what I was confused about was that in the scale diagrams, the frets AND patterns appeared to be both exactly the same for the major and the minor scale? Anyway, I think my brain's still failing at at the moment but I'm going to have a proper read of your answer shortly and hopefully it'll start to make sense for me. I'll get there eventually ;)
Liz