I am learning an to play this accompaniment while I sing "Counting Stars". I am having trouble internalizing the beat in one section, and as such I keep losing rhythm. Not just for this song, it is a more broad problem; a very common pattern in accompaniments is to syncopate the vocal melody (and often the chord) in a similar manner. The section in question is is this:
I haven't been able to internalize the beat and play four steady quarter notes in the left hand. I'm so focused playing and singing the sixteenth notes and off-beat eighth notes, that the bass just becomes another sixteenth division in my mind. And so the inflections are all wrong and the unintended feel is that the beat is chasing the melody, rather than there being a steady beat.
I recorded the beat separately, and when I play that on loop I can play just the right hand and sing in perfect rhythm. Also, I can play the beat accurately while I sing, if I don't play the right hand. But when I actively have to play the [very simple] beat, with the rest, I get all messed up.
My question: what are some exercises I can do, or advise you could offer me, to improve on this?