I came across this JazzTimes article, published today, called The History of Play-A-Long (and More), which highlights how technology has "blown the options for interaction music education wide open" in the last 50 years - and they mention Band-in-a-Box®!

Check it out! https://jazztimes.com/departments/education/history-of-play-a-long/

The Ventures were one of the top instrumental groups in the US. In 1965 two records albums were released, "Play Guitar With The Ventures" and "Play Guitar With The Ventures - Volume 2".

Both albums feature four tracks of popular instrumental songs with one track a performance including the whole band, one track missing the bass track, one track missing the lead guitar and one track missing the rhythm guitar. Each track played a song twice, once at half speed with a voice narrating what chord is playing and then the same song at regular speed. There was also a track that supported tuning the guitar and bass. There was also supporting booklets with chord diagrams, fretboard notes for each string and photos.

"Play Guitar With The Ventures" included the song tracks for "Walk Don't Run", "Raunchy", "Tequila" and "Memphis". "Play Guitar With The Ventures - Volume 2" included "Pipeline", "Wipe-Out", "Out Of Limits" and "Let's Go!".

As someone learning to play drums in that time period and very much a fan of The Ventures music I was totally mad that the albums didn't include any information about playing a drum kit!

+++ HERE +++ & +++ HERE +++ are two links with more details. Make sure to click the "more images" button at the second link to open a pop up window with some neat images.

That was an interesting read, thank you!