Those tiny, itty bitty things. I need some guidance. This old enthusiast is more at home with tubes and such. It even seems the solder used on these modern things melts at higher temp, harder to melt.

Lots of SMD soldering tutorials on YouTube, and on Dave Jones' "EEV Blog". Exact procedures depend on what type of component package you are trying to replace.

If you are going to do any substantial amount of SMD prototyping or rework, you will want to get a good soldering station with miniature tips, and a magnifier/microscope setup. I struggled along with a standard soldering iron and a magnifying bench lamp for years, but a proper SMD soldering system (Metcal) and a stereo zoom microscope really improve work quality and productivity.

Most modern equipment uses lead-free solder, which does need more heat to melt, and has a different appearance than the old Sn/Pb solder.

I'd suggest a Chip-Quik kit if you are doing SMT/SMD replacement often. The solder is expensive, but lowers the melting temp a bit and easy to work with as well. Just google the kit and see who has it cheapest. I've had mine since 2003, and have gone through two sticks of solder out of the 10.

Cheers,