New to playing Piano Beginner

[repoman]

I'm new to this post and to the piano - three month into my studies and 4 lessons with a private teacher, using Faber Accelerated Piano for Older beginners. I'm having trouble with beats and rhythm counting them while playing - suggestions please
Regards - Repoman

[keypeg]

I'm new to this post and to the piano - three month into my studies and 4 lessons with a private teacher, using Faber Accelerated Piano for Older beginners. I'm having trouble with beats and rhythm counting them while playing - suggestions please
Regards - Repoman

The first thing I'd want to know is what and how you are being taught.  Since you are a beginner and lessons are new to you, you may also not be able to tell us this because you don't yet have any point of reference other than the lessons themselves.
You're learning pieces in the book.  Are you also being taught how to read?  How to divide a piece into sections for how to work on a piece?  Have you been taught note values, counting, what a beat is, how a measure and time signatures work?  How to work in stages?  The issues themselves that you listed can be broken down in to their elements - and then now to work on and with them. Which your teacher should be doing, but might not be.
Have you indicated your problems to your teacher?  If so, has the teacher advised you, and was that helpful or confusion?
(I don't care much for "accelerated for adults" things because imho they seem to tend to rush through things.)

[keypeg]

One cannot help much if there is no response. 

[repoman]

Thanks for the comments Keypeg:) I'm being taught by a private teacher using the Faber books with her giving examples and correcting my mistakes.  I have been shown the scales and know the notes on the keybord also, so I can read notes fairly well now.  Regarding the counting she has given examples of the 1&2&3&4 for the 4/4 for whole notes, but when it changes to eights/quarter I find it hard to switch the counts to the &.  Not sure what to say about the teacher, I have indicated that I'm not getting it, and she is saying that it will just take a lot of practice and time  - keep going slow......

[geopianoincanada]

It will take time, yes. Pursue this patiently and slowly. If you have a metronome practice using it as you play to help guide your sense of timing at a slow pace.

[pianistavt]

Sounds like you would benefit from practicing rhythm and counting as an exercise, away from the keyboard.
Do you have a metronome?
You can download one as an app.

For example,  set it to 80 and count along  1 2 3 4
Then count 1&2&3&4&
Set it to 160 for 1&2&3&4&, if that helps.
Then do this playing one note on the piano with RH
Then LH
Then both.
Do this with various mm settings.

good luck!

[keypeg]

Thanks for the comments Keypeg:) I'm being taught by a private teacher using the Faber books with her giving examples and correcting my mistakes.  I have been shown the scales and know the notes on the keyboard also, so I can read notes fairly well now.  Regarding the counting she has given examples of the 1&2&3&4 for the 4/4 for whole notes, but when it changes to eights/quarter I find it hard to switch the counts to the &.  Not sure what to say about the teacher, I have indicated that I'm not getting it, and she is saying that it will just take a lot of practice and time  - keep going slow......

I'm always uneasy about these "accelerated" or "adult" books, because they zoom through things and risk missing basic concepts.   The first things we want to get are the fundamental concepts and skills, and pieces we learn are mostly the vehicle toward this - but teaching and these books can have mastering the pieces as the main goal, and getting at fancier music rapidly. This at the expense of those foundations.

I want to go to this part because of the problems you're having.

  Regarding the counting she has given examples of the 1&2&3&4 for the 4/4 for whole notes, but when it changes to eights/quarter I find it hard to switch the counts to the &. 

it feels like things were mixed together, and I'm not convinced that you were taught properly.    The "whole notes" in "for the 4/4 for whole notes" bothers me.  Since I don't know what you've been taught or what you know I'll try to set out a full picture.

In regard to time, we have three different but related elements: note value, beats, time signature.

Note values: I'm adding a link to this note value "tree".  I suggest opening it in a separate tab so you can look at it while reading:
https://www.schoolofcomposition.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Note-Values-Tree.png
(There are even faster notes, the 32nds with two flags, etc. but this is good enough.)

Looking at the bottom two rows, in the time that you play one quarter note, you'll have played two eighth notes.  The eighth notes are twice as fast as the quarter note.  So if you steadily tap out the quarter notes with one hand, you'd do two taps with the other hand.   If you want you could call this 1 & 2 &; or verbalize it any way at all, or not verbalize it.

The middle rows have half notes and quarter note.  The same relationship exists; in the time you play one half note, you'll have played two quarter notes.  It's exactly the same relationship between them.  If you compare the half notes to the eighth notes, it's logical that four eighth notes fit into one half note.  You can see that in the diagram.

Finally the top two rows, we have the same relationship between the half notes and whole note.  Two half notes are played in the time of one whole note.   And the going down the chain. 

You can experiment all kinds of ways to get a feel for those relationships, going back and forth to get it all into your system.

TIME SIGNATURE, AND BEAT

4/4 is a time signature.  The top 4 means there are 4 beats to a measure.  That is a steady pulse existing in the music.  We hear the trope of marching soldiers with the call of Hup two three four Hup two three four.  The "Hup" is that strong push surging the measures along, like waves crashing to shore.  The bottom 4 tells us which note "gets the beat".  The 4 beats to a measure is 4 quarter notes.  If the time signature were 4/8, then we'd count four 8th notes as filling one measure.  2/2 would be different again. This is NOT a thing to worry about right now.  However, it is important to know that "beats" refer to the subdivision of a measure, and also involves the regular "pulse" in the measure. This word is misused, including in some method books and by some teachers.

So in 4/4 time, there are four beats in a measure, and each beat is the length of a quarter note, or .... when we count 1-2-3-4 for the four beats, we're counting the length of four quarter notes.  This has nothing whatsoever to do with a whole note. In mentioning the whole note, that was for relative note values in the "tree" and it mixes things up.

Since there are four beats, it is common to count the notes as 1-2-3-4, and for the "twice-as-fast notes" which can "fall in between", to call these "and".  This is like tapping your quarter notes with one hand, and tapping twice as fast for the eighth notes with the other hand - a portion of them will fall "in between" the quarter note taps.

You could, if you wanted, also count your 4/4 time in eighth notes as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 .... the quarter notes would fall on 1, 3, 5, 7.   You can divide your note values into all kinds of ways, if you understand the proportional nature of note values (each in the tree is twice as fast as the one above it).

Let me know if this helps, if there are questions, and whether I made a confusing mess.

================

have indicated that I'm not getting it, and she is saying that it will just take a lot of practice and time  - keep going slow.....

This is not a good response to "not getting it".  You can't practise lots of anything if you don't understand it.