For the month of January 2026, show your chops in the Ringo Starr Tribute Drumming Challenge! You can play along to ANYTHING in his discography! Your selections can range from hits to DEEP cuts. He is, of course, known for his work with a little band called The Beatles, has released numerous solo albums, and has collaborated with various artists! You can play along to any official tracks that feature Ringo and show off your skills for a chance to win up to a $125-worth of prizes!
First, second, and third place winners each get a free DTTV shirt (provided that shipping is only in the United States), as well as, respectively, $125, $75, and $50 gift certificates to a music store of their choice! First place winner also gets a chance to be interviewed by Dan Shinder on Drum Talk TV! You can submit up until 11:59pm PST on January 31st, 2026, and results will be announced mid-February! If, however, we do not reach at least a dozen submissions and at least seven participants by the end of the month, we may decide to extend the challenge. We will only award prizes if we deem that there have been enough participants for this to really feel like a competition.
Remember, these MUST BE the actual official recordings that you play to, and we encourage that. There is no algorithm within our platform that will mute or pull your recording.
If you are a member at the free level, you may submit up to two (2) videos. If you have a paid membership, you may submit as many as you want, which increases your chances to win. Think of it like playing cards against other people with 8 hands rather than one (or in this case, possibly two).
RULES / HOW IT’S JUDGED
Entries are graded 1 – 5, 5 being best on the following:
ACCURACY: What is being played, as in the beat and note placement (studio vs the live version you indicate playing to, as there may be many versions of the same song). This carries 50% of the score weight.
SOUND: As in how close the drum sound is to the version the entry is playing. The drummer’s style may have evolved over the years, so make it pertinent to the studio track you are playing, or the official live version 😉. This refers to tuning (which we realize can get lost in the recording), as well as the “SOUND” of the drums. This carries 30% of the core weight
FAN PRAISE: This is where you want to reach out and invite your tribe! You know, your peeps, friends, followers – heck, even your ex! Users on the Free and Paid versions of our site can comment the word “VOTE” under each video they’d like to vote for. For each video, it’s one vote per user, so no need for one person to type the same word ten times in a row! This carries 20% of the score weight.
Lastly, for this challenge, we do not accept medleys, nor do we accept videos of you playing this artist’s song with other musicians or a band. You can submit those at https://big.drumtalktv.com/videosubmissionguidelines for consideration to be posted on our social channels where we have 1.5 million fans and reach 100M people a year! Looking forward to seeing you honor an amazing drummer, so BRING IT!