20 grooves · notation + tempo · Letter + A4 · free
Drum Patterns Cheat Sheet PDF
Twenty original beginner grooves in standard drum notation — rock, funk, house, shuffle and more — each with a genre label and a practice tempo. Letter or A4, free.
Vector PDF · no email, no watermark · revised 3 August 2026
What’s inside
- 20 original grooves, one bar of notation each.
- One bar of standard notation per groove, generated from the same data as the players
- Genre, time signature and a slow-then-target practice tempo for each
- Grouped so the beginner grooves come first
- A footer on every page with the site address, the revision date and the page number.
What the diagrams look like
The PDF uses the same renderer as the interactive chart, so this is exactly what prints — only larger, and in vector.
The basic rock pattern, as it appears on the cheat sheet — one of twenty grooves.
Printing tips
- Match the paper. Letter is 8.5 × 11 in (US and Canada); A4 is 210 × 297 mm (nearly everywhere else). Each file is laid out for its own size.
- Turn “fit to page” off. Choose Actual size or 100% scale — scaling to fit shrinks the diagrams and adds a border you do not need.
- Greyscale is fine. A pressed key is a filled shape with a heavier outline, never colour alone, so a black-and-white photocopy reads the same.
- Print single-sided for a multi-page chart if students will lay the pages side by side on a stand.
Where the data comes from
This file is generated at build time from the same reviewed data and the same diagram renderers as interactive drum patterns — no redrawing, no separate copy to fall out of date. It was last revised 3 August 2026, and that date is printed in the footer of every page so you can tell an old photocopy from a current one.
Frequently asked questions
Is this really free?
Yes. The PDF downloads on one click with no email address, no account and no watermark, and it always will — the free functional chart is the point of this site, not a lead magnet. There is nothing to unlock.
Can I photocopy it for my class?
Yes, please do. Classroom use is actively encouraged: print a class set, photocopy it, put it in a folder or on a music stand, project it, or hand it out at the start of term. We only ask that you leave the site address in the footer so students can find the interactive version and hear the notes.
Should I print Letter or A4?
Letter (8.5 × 11 in) if your paper came from a US or Canadian shop, A4 (210 × 297 mm) almost everywhere else. Each file is laid out for its own paper size, so choose the matching one and print at Actual size (100%) rather than "fit to page".