Thanks for your comments.

William, that is the site I used for the backing tracks. The music and lyrics are pretty good and I just need to play the guitar part. They come as mp3 files and you can play them on anything. The video is a good reference for everyone. I love playing along with these tracks. They make me feel like I am in the band.

In terms of my line 6 reference, it is a brand of Amplifiers from Yamaha. I have a Spider v 30 - only because the guy in the music store suggested it to me.

They are modelling amps. That means that they can "model" the sound of other amplifiers, speaker cabinets and all sorts of effects. For example, I can choose to sound like a particular model of Marshall Amp, or a Fender etc. I can add some reverb or chorus, I can add a fuzz box, I can add a compressor etc. I can do it on the amp but I usually do it by plugging in my computer and see the it all on the screen. Once I have the sound I like I then save it to a preset. In my case I save them by song name and then I can simply scroll through them as I play my set. It sounds a lot of work, but there are a lot of factory presets to get you started and you can just use them or tweak your own.

I play my backing tracks on my computer and they come through the amp. For practice this means I can listen on headphones and hear the full bakcing track along with my guitar.

Put all of this together and I can get a really great sound.

In terms of how much I have learnt, I played guitar a fair bit when I was a teenager (never well enough to perform for anyone). However, sport and family got in the way and while I always had an accoustic I would strum on occasionally, I did not play much for maybe 30 years. So I am not a true beginner but more like a second time beginner (and I certainly meet the Old Folks category).

I saw my wife take up photography and learn so much from you tube and courses on the web, it inspired my to pick the guitar up again. I searched for some website lessons and found guitar tricks.

I think I joined in March 2018. Since then I have learnt so much. In fact so much more than I ever learnt before. The teachers are sensational and while I have worked through the lessons to some extent, it is the songs that I have found great.

My best tip would be to slow it down. Use the feature to slow the song down to 75 or 50% and practice at that until you have the fingering down while playing along with the music. I have found this to be the best way to learn. Once you have the fingering, it is easier to increase the speed gradually and maintain the correct form.

One thing I have learnt is that some of the great songwriters and guitar music is clever but not that difficult. For example, The Rolling Stones Satisfaction or the Beatles Day Tripper - even the lead solo is not that difficult but great fun to learn and play.

Computers, the web, technology are all great tools that are available to help the learning and I had none of these when I was younger.

Cheers

Stephen J