Scales?

Seriously scales are confusing the crap out of me. Granted I have only been playing for no more than a month but I pick up on things quickly. But my problem is that I have seen many different ways to play the same type of scale and it's not making my sence to me.

The second link you provided will probably be the most useful to start with. You're confusion probably comes from not realizing a couple of things. First, the same note appears on the guitar in 3 or more places and second, you can start a scale with any one of your fingers. If you start with your middle finger, the pattern you will play will be different than if you start with your pinkey. The second link outlines 5 different patterns you can use to play the same scale.

Before you get to deep into playing the pattern, it might help to know what the major scale consists of. I'd suggest you run thru some of the lessons provided on this site. Try this lesson as a starting point:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=73

Enjoy

OK, first things first - it doen't matter how different the patterns my look on different web sites, the notes (and their positions on the fretboard) are always the same. Take the key of C major - it's made up of the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Wherever you find one of those notes, on the fretboard, it's part of the C major scale and it doesn't matter where on the fretboard it is. The E on the open low E (6th) string is as much a part of the C major scale as the E at the 12th fret of the high E (1st) string.
If you were to put all the patterns from one web site together and compared them to those from another the result would be the same.
If you were to map out all the notes on the fretboard in the C major scale and then move the whole map up two frets, you would get the map of the D major scale - the notes may have changed, but the interval between notes (and, therefore, the patttern of notes) always remains the same. This is why it is important to learn intervals and the positions of the root notes, particularly on the 5th (A) and 6th (low E) strings - putting those two together allows you to build scales.

burgermeister and greybeard thanks for the replys. I'm still somewhat fuzzy about them but your posts have kinda kicked my butt in the right direction :) The haze is clearing some on scales and even on chord construction. Much thanks to the both of you.