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Well, don't get too involved with the nuts & bolts of it all. I've noticed that, with older students, that can be the kiss of death in music...learn to enjoy it while you're working on it all! Make it play-time as much as you can, & you'll learn faster & feel better about your stuff, & prolly be more productive, writing-wise, as well.

You say you have no rhythm - may I suggest spending a LOT of time with your new best friend - the metronome! Sleep with the damned thing running. It'll put you out, but it will also help you to learn the steadiness that music requires. Play with it. Leave it running while you do stuff completely unrelated to music. You'll find that doing this will actually help you retain a steady tempo, if you do. Once you have that steadiness, it's only counting from there...

Listen to philbymon. That's what I was saying about the keyboard drumbeats . They will hand you your rhythm. Rhythm is supremely important when playing with others or even just recording multi track.

So true, Paul. I've purposely played some blue notes on easy pieces just to see what ppl would say, but when I stayed in time, even many veteran musicians didn't notice my gaff. When I've wandered off-time, everyone notices, whether I'm playing the right note or not, depending, of course, upon how far off I'm playing.

Just wanted to say: Keep at it.