Hoping someone can guide me in this task....

I have a column that contains 4 different types of items (calling them
letters to make easier: Q, A, P, L)

I need to have a cell at the bottom that basically creates a total count of
each item but only if they are certain items. For example here's a sample
column: and I only want A's and P's counted to make the total.

A
Q
Q
P
L
L
A

(the cell would count 2a's, 1p and the number 3 would show up in the total
column)

Is there a formula that would help with this (I'm assuming some sort of If
statement)

thanks for taking the time to read this.