First off, I am going to be buying a an electric guitar soon (in a few months maybe). I am willing to pay up to £350 for one, enough to buy the standard fender strat or tele. I currently have a £70 westfield acoustic which I'm progressing quite quickly on. First off, what are the main differences between the two types?? I mean, will the quality in sound in the strat be better than the acoustic. Will I be able to change tone and such?? What are pick ups??? Any advice on this will be great :)

Now, onto the sub topic. In the past week I have been practising hard and have learnt almost 5 new songs to heart (rhtyhm). These are : Why worry, wonderful tonight, Yellow Submarine, American Pie and Brown Eyed Girl. The first to songs were finger picking style while the others used new rhythm techniques i.e swing rhythm, syncopation. I also learned a trick called the d run. Anyway, to the point. I wasn't gonna ask these questions in fear of being ridiculed but.....

Can anyone explain to me what scales are and how they work (jargon free would be helpful)?

Is alternate picking using different plucking patterns on the strings eg. g, b, g, e, b, e?

Thanks ::)