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Okay, you can also understand the denominations historically, according to a few broad groups. In the beginning was the church, and it was good (I said I was painting with a broad brush, right?) Around the end of the first millenium, the orthodox churches split from the RCC (or the other way around), mostly because the orthodox thought that the bishop of Rome was too powerful. Then there was the reformation. There are three main groups that come out of the reformation: Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anabaptists. I suppose one could count the Anglicans too, but they aren't really as seperate from the RCC as the others -- sort of half-protestant. To some extent, these divisions were (and are) geographical. Lutherans and Anabaptists in Germany and Scandinavia, Calvinists in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Scotland. But the Lutherans are much more high church than the Calvinists, and the Anabaptists tend to be far more low church. Other than the Pentecostals, just about all protestant denominations fit into one of these groups. To further narrow it down, we can talk about how one group divided. I'll use the example of the Calvinists, since my denomination is a Calvinist denomination, and so I know them the best. To some extent, the reason the Dutch and Scotch formed seperate denominations is just due to geography, but differences arose over time. Most generally, the Scottish Calvinists (Presbyterians) tend to be more puritanical than the Dutch Calvinists (the Reformed churches). I've never been to a Presbyterian church, so I don't know how the services differ. My own denomination is the Christian Reformed Church. We split off from the Reformed Church of America in the 1850s, and the RCA split from the GKR much earlier. (I'm not sure about the spelling, but GKR is close. It's the Dutch state church, and I'm pretty sure the RCA split mostly for geographical reasons). We split from the RCA over the issue of whether or not freemasons could be members in the church. There are numerous differences, most of which you wouldn't notice unless you looked closely. The most noticeable difference between the CRC and the RCA is Christian education. The CRC emphasizes Christian schools much, much more strongly than the RCA does; you're much more likely to find an RCA kid in public school than a CRC kid. There are theological reasons for this I won't go into.
While we're talking about the differences between denominations, I might as well say that, despite significant differences in belief, my beliefs as a conservative "Calvinist" [1] are much closer to the beliefs of a conservative Pentecostal than they are to a very liberal "Calvinist".
[1]I put Calvinist in quotes because, first of all, I don't subscribe to the narrow set of beliefs most commonly associated with Calvinism, and secondly, neither would the liberal Presbyterian. For that matter, many members of the various "Calvinist" denominations either don't know what these beliefs are and probably wouldn't accept them if they did.
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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."
"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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