My family chose for me to begin my music playing journey with drums. My older brother had a rock band while my father had a country band and I played in both.

I learned by playing along with albums by The Ventures. Don't exactly remember the first song I learned but I'm sure "Wipeout" had to be one of the first. At one time I had a record collection that included everything released in the USA by The Ventures. All of the albums were worn out from playing. I wasn't aware until recently The Ventures released albums just for distribution in Japan where they were popular than even The Beatles.

The Ventures released a series of four albums called "Play With The Ventures". One side of the album had four or five songs with all instruments playing. The flip side had the same song list but minus the featured instrument; either drums, bass, rhythm guitar or lead guitar. You listened to one side to hear how the song was supposed to sound then could flip the album over, cue up the same song and practice with The Ventures!

Each of the four albums had a different song list that highlighted the featured instrument. For instance the song list on the bass album had songs with a lot of really good bass runs. By the time each member of a garage band learned to play all the songs in the series the group would have a pretty good collection of songs they could play as well as an elementary proficiency of their chosen instrument. Printed material included tab sheets and how to tune and care for the instruments.

It took a l-o-n-g time for me to develop an interest in country music. My father's band played mostly ballads and waltzs so there wasn't much for a drummer to do.

Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
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Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home