1-forms

Can anyone give me a somewhat simplistic explanation of 1-forms?  For some reason I'm really stuck on this, I understand that they're a linear transformation mapping point and a vector to R.  (I'm guessing they actually map to all of C but for sake of learning I'd appreciate it simplified as my understanding of complex analysis is virtually nonexistant at this point in time.)  I don't even understand their purpose, except that a differential is a type of 1-form.  The wikipedia article was a bit over my head & the wolfram article wasn't much help either.

>>8
Exactly.  Often I feel like I'm taking classes so I can really grasp the prerequisites.  I have a decent understanding of elementary linear algebra, but it's not really second nature to me yet so sometimes I have to spend a little time thinking for eigenvalue problems & some other stuff that I really should have down by now.  The major exception is determinants, I've pretty much completely given up on understanding those, I know a couple of the ways to find them but honestly I have no idea what they are.  I've been told volume of a parallelepiped (sp?), but I don't understand how that comes about given the formulae for deriving determinants, & I rarely ever understand the relation when determinants are invoked.  Also I have no concept of the significance the sign/orientation.  I think textbooks really ought to focus on determinant-free proofs when possible, the other students I talk to don't seem to know either, it just seems to be accepted as proof by intimidation.  Whoops, off-topic...