Have Trouble With Blues Progressions

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On Fridays, I usually meet with a couple of people for a weekly jam.
I've been playing guitar for some years, and my skills are otherwise good enough to make some music.
My style is a mixture of classical, alternative, bluesy/bebob/spy stuff, with just a touch of trance, and I tend to be a composer rather than a jammer.

My problem is, that I have never been good at counting off measures. Even thought I play a lot from the blues scale, I tend to mess up comping blues progressions. When I play guitar it's largely one the few "right brain" things I do, so if I start counting measures, it's very hard for me to play. The standard blues progression is too long for me, so without identifiable leads or vocals, I get lost.

The other guitarist is not good with this, and thinks that I just don't want to do his stuff. They think it's all about want. I started to shut/melt down, and it was the one thing I had to look forward too : (

I find it hard to grasp that you're having difficulty counting a standard blues progression.

Obviously, you need to concentrate hard on your counting when comping. Try counting 1234, 2345, 3234, 4234 (chord change) 1234, 2234, 3234, and so on. I'm sure that as you get more practice and experience it will soon come naturally to you. If you play classical guitar then you are obviously capable of playing the right notes, chords, etc, so concentrating a lot on counting will be good for you.

Can you use a visual aid; sheet music or chart and follow that?

I agree with the user above moog, though if you find counting puts you off you can always tap the rhthm with your foot and count the first beet of every passing bar, so it will be something like; (F7)1-x-x-x 2-x-x-x 4-x-x-x (Bb7) 1-x-x-x-2-x-x-x-3-x-x-x-4-x-x-x etc etc. I find it helps a lot in faster music, but it just takes some practising to get use to. Try that out, and if all fails, USE ONE OF THE BLANKET SCALES!! !!

Hope that helps

When I play, I rarely count anything--ever. This is why i tend to need to play guitar so much, because I like play from my "right side," of my brain.
If the person played a consistent solo, then I could just feel it.

Thanks for the replies.

Please, don't pass this around. It's an old thing I wrote, a little angry, but that's what it was for.
The only thing I count in this is the 5/4 part, and the outro.
www.brendamake.com/temp/csa_recue.mp3