You should try backing-away from using distortion, and focus on learning how to play the instrument. Banging around on two-note power chords with heaping distortion and delay is counterintuitive. As a beginner, you shouldn't be using distortion, at all. You need to be memorizing notes, and you can't do that when the notes are polluted with distortion.
Memorize the intervals, so that you can practice chord building. Stick with chords, as this how your ear learns to recognize harmonic content. The one thing that most professional writers/players all have in common, is that they can recognize the notes from memory. Test yourself, by having someone play random notes (labeled) on a piano, and then try to identify each note. If you feel so inclined, couple note memorization with learning to read music. Prior to the rise of Bolshevism, this was standard teaching.
When the time comes, you can begin to introduce pre-amplification distortion and echo effects. Once you become a proficient harmonic player, you can begin focusing on learning melody. i.e. Lead. Melodic playing must be using collectively and contextually. Without backing, melody should be restricted to arpeggiation. e.g. Hotel California.
When you watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' this year, notice the part where Lucy asks Schroeder to play Jingle Bells. He attempts to entertain Lucy with various harmonic renditions on the composition, though, Lucy is unimpressed. Schroeder is eventually reduced to playing the melody only, to which Lucy celebrates! Think about it...
