I’ve only just seen this – I hope you come back because I think this is an interesting discussion! I can’t count for more than a couple of notes when I’m playing recorder. I tried playing keyboard for a short time and I had no problems counting aloud and playing that! I’m using a version of Kodaly now – ta, ti-ti etc etc and this works well for notes I want to tongue with a ‘t’. I’m pretty sure I’ll learn to fudge it for other sounds or by then it will be so natural that I won’t have to consciously count… Yes, I’m an optimist!