I’m having trouble is counting the beats and bars and at the same time singing the song lyrics

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Hello. Unsure whether this is the best place for this question but will give it a try…
I’m getting better at recognizing the 4 beats per bar patterns and even strumming on the down beats. Where I’m having trouble is counting the beats and bars and at the same time singing the song lyrics while playing the right bits at the right time. Any tips for this or is it just practice and familiarity?

For example - I’m learning the song “3 little birds”. I can pretty much play the basic chord changes through at the right time with some dodgy changes but it gets there. I can kind of sing the lyrics through and understand where the chord changes are occurring with the lyrics - but I’m pretty sure my timing is off. Like it’s no longer a 4 beats per bar rhythm once I go with both guitar and lyrics. Hope this post makes sense :thinking: :grin:. Thanks all.

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@Andy_15

Hi Andrew - now that you have got chord progression under your fingers, I would suggest work at playing along with a backing track of the song tapping your foot to the beat or along with a metronome. Start at a lower BPM than the actual BPM and gradually increase the tempo until you can play in time with the actual BPM for the song. With practice your playing of the song will become automatic and singing along won’t throw your playing off.

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