Where To Find Drum Charts

So a question I’ve been getting a lot of recently is asking for charts to send people as I’d mentioned in one of my videos someone had done this for me once and that I’d help people do the same if they needed. And I did! I’ve sent thousands of charts out over the last 3 years. It gets difficult when away with WIFI and commitments to do this as often as I’d like, so I’m going to quickly talk about where to get charts from for yourself and how I did it.
 
So this may seem stupidly obvious but mainly it’s just about sitting down and typing into any search engine any variation of the following phrase;
 

• Drum Charts
• Drum Sheet Music
• Drum Scores
• Drum Transcriptions

 
Also make sure you add “PDF” after these options too to yield more results. You can also be super specific if it’s a certain style, song or groove you want to work on;
 

• Dreams Fleetwood Mac Drum Chart
• Superstition Stevie Wonder Drum Transcription
• Motown Drum Sheet Music
• Rock Music Drum Charts
• Latin Style Drum Groove Chart

 
You get the picture.
 
If you’re looking for charts to improve your sight reading or to get ready for ship auditions I highly suggest getting your hands on as many styles, genres and difficulties of music as possible. Also be sure to get charts written by as many different transcribers as possible as you don’t want to get used to reading only one person’s style of writing. People write charts as differently as people speak languages. The more you expose yourself to different writers and charts the more well-rounded you’ll be and won’t feel put off with new charts.
 
So here’s a list of my go-to websites I tend to use when I need something;
 

• Tim Buell.com
• OnlineDrummer.com
• ClassicRockCharts.com
• The Drum Ninja
• Classic Rock Drum Charts
• Facebook Groups
• Reddit Groups
• Sheet Music Plus
• Vic Firth
• Drum Charts International
• Best Music Sheet
• Robert Ferrell
• Joel Fountain

 
If you’re looking for educational drum books or material to work on these things there’s also many, many ways to do this too. You can do this through video or drum books or both. Here’s a quick list;
 

• Patreon
• Gumtree
• Hudson Music
• Amazon
• YouTube
• Vimeo  
• Your Local Music Stores
• Guitar Centre
• Drum Shows
• Sam Ash
• Sweetwater

 
Most artists now have their own subscriptions and products and many educational videos on their own pages;
 

• JP Bouvet
• Eddy Thrower
• Drumeo
• Mikeslessons
• Richard Spaven
• Dave Weckl
• To name a few…

 
Once you’ve tried searching for charts yourself, try and utilize your circle or people you know of. People are usually kind and will hopefully help if you ask in the right way. But you have to ask in the right way. I can’t tell you the amount of emails I get almost demanding charts, which I never have or will reply to. So make sure you approach humbly and tell that player exactly why you need those charts. Reach out to cruise players, theatre musicians, drum teachers, schools, universities. These resources can be incredibly useful.
 
Exposure to the job, although easier said than done is also insanely useful to gain new charts. Get a job in an industry that will as a byproduct get you loads of charts. Cruise Ships, Theatre, Recording etc. You’ll build up a library of charts through doing it this way surprisingly quickly.
 
You may also have to pay for some of these things too. In my research in the past, I always would come across “bundles”. Where a website or person would have say 150 popular rock drum charts for X amount of money. Or you see $3.99 per chart. It adds up so try both, but usually I find the paid ones are better quality and better written. Subscription sites like Scribid are also good for mass charts and books that are available for download.
 
Make sure along the way you support your local and fellow artists. Linked to the point above, things cost money and so does putting out these products. These are the efforts of mass amounts of time and money spent by these artists, so support your favorite artists by buying their DVD or book rather than hunting high and low for knock off copies.
 
You can also buy the physical drum books and scan them into forScore [which I show you how to do in my forScore demo video on YouTube]. I’ve done this hundreds of times, and it’s incredible, especially when you have old drum books lying around. You can even be super specific just scanning a page you need like “The Table of Time” from Jim Chapin’s Modern Drumming Methods.
 
Another way to support these players is to sign up to subscriptions on their websites, go for drum lessons, go and watch local gigs etc.…If we want to see the musical education sector thrive, we should be there to help them. After all, I’d say its 100% worth every book, masterclass, video series, lesson, clinic I’ve ever bought, seen or been to. This is the work of a lifetime for a lot of artists, their entire career is summated in one book, or one video and it costs as much a McDonalds more often than not.
 
Hopefully this has helped! And good luck on your chart finding journeys and leave comments if you also have your go to chart places to help anyone else watching this. 
 
Thank you for reading.
 
Dan