My first kit was a Roadshow.
My teacher suggested old Motown songs and the earlier Beatles for learning basic song form, so I picked out "Shotgun" by Junior Walker and the Allstars. Also I worked on the Beatles, "Hard Days Night"
My first 'real' kit was a 70's Tama Royalstar 5 piece kit, which I added a couple of Remo rototoms for additional hitting surface.
This is the first album I played along with.
Perhaps looking back it was a pretty big undertaking, especially since I could barely keep the beat at 10 years old
![ROFL :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
.... but I believe being exposed to such music at an early age helped create in me a better grasp of tempo changes (lol), time signatures and a better feel for progressive rock/fusion/jazz drumming which I've used throughout my entire life. It led to many other things, so I am convinced that like toddlers who listen to classical such as Beethoven, Corelli, Braums, Mozart, etc., we are constantly absorbing everything going into our ears.
In the 80's when there was no streaming music, I used to go to the public library and check out classical greats (along with Black Sabbath and other HM records of the day that I didn't own at the time), if you have not heard it lately it is ver refreshing for an uplifting musical interlude.
Here's some Corelli:
and (yawn, although not really) Mozart:
The sooner the better to get complicated, stretches the mind body and soul.