Christopher, I was hoping you would see and respond this post! I find your responses to be super helpful on the forum.

As I mentioned I use a metronome for everything throughout my practice routine. Practicing scales, working through elements of songs or lessons at a slower tempo, etc. When I have learned a song, most recently, China Grove, You Shook Me All Night Long and Are You Gonna Be My Girl I know when I am actually playing I can’t count my way through it I have to feel it. I study the counting when I am learning the song to understand how to play it but once I learn it and play it with the backing track I rely on tapping my foot to maintain the tempo. I am getting better at it and I am pretty darn close on all three of those songs. But sometimes playing arpeggios or just repeating riffs in the song can briefly throw me off as my hands have to play notes in between my foot taps. That issue can also apply to chord anticipations. I am trying to anchor my hands to key downbeats I am tapping with my foot in the more complicated bars of a song to keep myself in time. In short I am working to better feel the connection between what I am playing with my hands and the beat I am keeping with my foot tapping when the rhythm and or riffs get more complicated.

I hope my rambling makes sense to you. The question is this the right approach and is it just a matter if putting in the time to make if feel more natural? At this point I can play each of the songs fairly closely to the backing track it just becomes a matter of repetition for me to actually not have to think about it. I am hoping the process becomes faster and more natural and I progress.

Thanks in advance for any advice. I very much enjoy your lessons and am working through your series on Triads again as think it’s a super important concept to get under my fingers and apply.

Thanks and best, Michael