Hi Fernandez, a good way to check your progress is to jam over a backtrack. I have said this before here. It shows all the areas you need to work on. Chord changes,timing,tone etc. I spent many years just playing tab. It is easy to fall into just playing along rather than thinking your way through it. I was starting to feel like a touch typist. Some people are happy with memorizing tunes and playing them note for note. I wanted to be able to go my own way and jam over tunes to express my own feel for them. I use tabs now as a learning tool, not as an end result. Your books are probably covering all the basics so you should stick with them. Just try to put what you have learned in a real world context, Jam along to the
radio or when your watching tv. When you hit a string of notes that sound good, stop and figure out why they work or you play some clangers,why didn't they work. Hope that helps.