It turns out in music counting to four is entirely different that how I previously understood counting to four. Sometimes you count to four quickly, sometimes slowly. They have fancy words that tell how to count like Vivace and Largo, but for now I am just trying to get counting to four at medium speed down (however, there are several medium speeds.) Not only do you have to count to four at the same pace through the entire song, but you have to remember where to put your fingers, how to make an embouchure (the way you form your mouth to actually make a sound), and read what note you are supposed to play.
The really tricky part comes in when you don’t actually play a new note for each of those counts. When playing a half note you are counting to two twice and four simultaneously. You can’t even count out loud because you are desperately trying to make this embouchure so you don’t squeak while reading, fingering, and playing the note. It is exhausting and very overwhelming. This doesn’t even tackle the “rests” which are not restful at all, because you are still counting to four and trying to look ahead for the next note.
Luckily, after several failed counting and playing attempts, my son broke it down for me and had me clap the melody several times and counted out loud while I played. He tried introducing me to an online metronome (a clicking music counter), but I got lost. There is also this page at the back of my music book called rhythms that he assigned for this week. It looks pretty boring (as I am sure a page full of graphing looks to my students). However, after trying to go too fast and failing, I know I need more practice. I thought I would be able to play a real song by the end of this week to play, but I am still working on counting to four with nursery rhyme tunes.
I hear rumors that sometimes you don’t even count to four, you count to two or three. However I liken this to parabolas and cubic equations and consider it advanced and for later learning.