Free sheet music

Stephen Watson, conducting his prize-winning entry in the composition competition

Does it surprise you to learn that our most popular post so far was the one about free sheet music? In that post, we told readers about the terrific Petrucci Music Library, which now contains 94,000 scores of music for orchestra, violin, piano, chamber ensemble, guitar and almost any instrument you could imagine.

If you are interested in playing music that is over 70 years old, this is a great site for you.

We also gave a link to a site where arranger, Richard Harris, has generously hosted oodles of pages of free copies of his arrangements of film music, popular classics, Christmas music and more.

If there is so much sheet music available free of charge (not forgetting the many illegal download sites), why would anyone visit a music store, whether physical or online, and pay for the stuff?

One good reason is that music stores sell books. Remember them? One great thing about a music book is that it probably contains music you weren't looking for, but which may be a great complement to the music you wanted.

For example, if your music teacher tells you to get a copy of Scarlatti's Sonata in C Major, L 252, you could download one from here. You'd get a readable copy and you'd have it almost instantly.

But if you decided to buy this book which contains that sonata, you'd get a modern edition, with fingering, information about the meaning of the signs on the music, advice on how to play the trills and ornaments, an introduction about Scarlatti, an article on how to paly ihs style of music and 13 other sonatas to have a play through.

You can't beat the price of a free download, but a book gives you a lot extra for only a few dollars.

Free sheet music

Would you like some sheet music that you don't have to pay for? Everyone loves a bargain, so it is not unusual that musicians and music students like to hunt on the internet for free copies!

And there is plenty of stuff available, though some comes with a sting in the tail. Let me explain.

Some internet sites have plenty of free sheet music, but it is not of high quality. You will find copies of your favourite pieces of music that are hard to read, poorly notated and that have musical errors in many free sheet music sites. And there are other sites that may send viruses to your computer, or leave something behind after your visit.

But here are two great, reliable sites:

1. The Petrucci Music Library. On 10th August, 2010 there were 68 thousand scores available on this site.

These scores are mainly pieces of classical music that are over 75 years old and consequently out of copyright. You can find music for almost any instrument you can think of at this site, as well as scores and parts for orchestral and chamber music.

Some of the scores are poorly scanned, or the original that was used was of poor quality. Some of the scores are of an older, inferior edition to the ones we use today.

But many of them are very good quality, and you can't beat the price.

Courtney Powell, with teacher Michelle Griffin, in Rising Stars concert

2. Richard Harris, composer and arranger has kindly placed dozens of great, mostly simple arrangements on his personal site which he allows you to download for free. Richard's arrangements are simple, but do not dumb down the original piece of music.

Richard asks you to register, because he would like to know who is visiting his site, but after registering, you can download as many pieces as you like.

Here are a few of my popular favourites from Richard's site:
The Great Escape theme.
The Ghostbusters Theme who ya gonna call?
Blueberry Hill [which comes from the 1940s: I always thought it was a song from the 50s]
I'm A Believer
We Are The Champions
Nutrocker [a fun, jazzed up version of The March from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, originally performed by Bumble Bee and The Stingers]

Richard's site also includes many lovely arrangements of well known pieces of classical music and [is it too early to mention it?] lots of Christmas music.

If you find you enjoy these arrangements, you would certainly like his books of popular songs and film music, published by Faber.