Christopher, I really can’t thank you enough for your guidance and advice on this super important topic. I have read over your response several times and it makes complete sense to me. I see now that I need to take the time to really get the counting internalized versus trying to feel my way through it by just tapping my foot to beat. (Granted that approach seems to work on easy parts of a song that don’t require more complicated execution.) 

I applied your advice yesterday afternoon during my practice and I could already see a difference. In retrospect think I was being a bit lazy about getting the key counting details ingrained in my desire to quickly learn to play the song which in the end was slowing down rather than speeding up the process. Kind of like trying to paint a room without all the prep work of taping it off.

In summary, do you count your way through a song at speed until you have it down and then do you find you have to think less about it and can just play it without having to think as much?

Again thank you for the guidance. Like everything in life getting the details right makes all the difference. 

Best, Michael