Does this throw anyone else off? The first time the B section comes in, it comes in on the upbeat of the four of the previous bar, but the second time it comes in on the upbeat of 1. That second time is easy and natural, but that first one I have a hard time ignoring and starting my pattern on the first beat.
Probably not a big deal, but it was driving me crazy trying to figure out why I was missing it at first until I slowed it down and counted and realized it was subtly different each time.
Hey, I think you’re talking about how the guitar comes in right?
If I count that, when the B section starts it comes in on 4a, so right before the 1. The second time it’s exactly on the 1.
I actually understand why that throws you off. The first time, that guitar hit is placed exactly in the spot where you play nothing. If you look at the diagrams you’ll see that that pad diagram on the 4a is completely empty.
So it messes with your head in the sense that an important “accent” is played, but you are playing nothing when that happens. The second time around, the guitar accent is placed nicely on the one and you’re doubling that with your kick drum and hihat.
Something you can do is pretend there is something played on that 4a. So look at the diagram and then pretend that there is for example a sidestick on the 4a instead of that empty diagram. Then you hit the sidestick in that moment and it should overlap with the guitar hit. After that, you try and just think the sidestick in your head without playing and after that you probably got it down.
Let me know if you figure it out today. If not I will record a short video about how to practice this. It’s 100% possible to get this right, but this is one of those counter intuitive things that can mess you up in the beginning. Let me already “spoil the fun” by saying this will also happen in future courses when I tell you to count out loud while playing certain beats. That will mess with your head as well, but once you can do it it solves a lot of these types of problems 
Good luck!
Yup, the guitar part
I ended up getting past it by sheer force of will, almost trying to ignore everything that was going on for that brief moment and keep the time entirely in my head. I’ll give the sidestick method a shot too though, that sounds useful.
I had a feeling this would come up again though. I’ve always had what feels like a similar problem in my brain when trying to sing and play the guitar at the same time for anything more complex than basic chords. That counting out loud thing sounds like it’s gonna be pretty difficult, but I look forward to the challenge
Ah great to hear! The counting out loud is still difficult for me when I try and do something new the first time, but it always becomes easier and it always puts me in true control of the timing of my beats and fills. Especially for example while going from a beat into a fill and back. When you have this solid counting going on that isn’t influenced by what you’re playing, this will smooth things over and glue things together. That’s why it is important.
Did a video about this years ago by the way on youtube: The best timing advice I ever got (thanks to Benny Greb) - YouTube
Ha, wow, that’s deceivingly hard! Nice video. I don’t know if it’s cheating, but counting 1 & 2 & really helped a lot. Now to try to nail it with just 1, 2, 3, 4…
Edit: I DID IT!
Awesome! This will get easier and easier and you will have really gained an important skill. Have fun!