Digital Sheet Music

Let there be music, music, music!

Thanks to digital sheet music made available on the Internet by printable download, musicians everywhere can access the musical notation to best-loved songs and melodies. Previously, only big city music stores sold the sheet music and music books, making it difficult or impossible for many people to acquire the music they wanted. Today, with the click of a mouse and the whirr of a computer printer, music of any type and genre is fast in the hands of anyone who wants it.

In this page, you will find links to digital sheet music -- including piano music, gospel music,Disney l sheet music,l string quartet sheet music, digital sheet music collections and more.

According to Wikipedia, the Mutopia project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books.

The music is reproduced from old scores that are out of copyright. The new scores are typeset with GNU LilyPond and distributed inPDF PostScript, Midi, and LilyPond format.

Currently, there are more than 1600 pieces of music available, more than half of which are pieces for piano. There are also many pieces for voice, and various other musical instruments. On the Mutopia project home page, there is a list with links to the most recently added pieces.

From the web site:

"The Mutopia Project offers sheet music editions of classical music for free download. These are based on editions in the public domain, and include works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Handel, Mozart, and many others. A team of volunteers are involved in typesetting the music by computer using the LilyPond software. Why not join them?

We also host a growing number of modern editions, arrangements and new music. The respective editors, arrangers and composers have chosen to make these works freely available."

Digital sheet music truly opens up the world of music to people who otherwise have limited access. I know this through first hand experience.

When I was a child living on a farm in a small, rural community, I took piano lessons with a local teacher. In time, I developed a level of skill on that instrument. Eventually, I completed grade eight piano through the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. In addition to practicing the musical requirements as stipulated by my piano teacher, I used my piano as a way of entertaining myself.

I loved playing sheet music and enjoyed both popular songs of the time as well as the old songs. I was delighted when I found a new music book with a selection of pieces that I could practice. I spent many an hour playing (often incompetently), and singing along at the top of my lungs. It should be noted that I have no singing voice and cannot carry a tune in a bucket. Nevertheless, living on a farm as I did, my loud singing and inept playing did not disturb anyone other than my tolerant parents and the poor farm animals, who did not complain.

There was a fly in the ointment, however. The selection of sheet music and books available to me locally was limited. Our nearest small city had one music store that carried a limited inventory of music, and if memory serves me, there was a national department store (Eatons of Canada) that also carried a small selection of music for the piano.

That was many years ago. Today, I live in Vancouver, one of Canada’s largest cities. I am still amazed at the shortage of piano music available. There are only a few music stores that stock piano music, along with music for other instruments. The choices are limited.

Digital sheet music is a life saver. I am delighted at the type of music that I am now able to locate online, and at a reasonable price. I can download it and print it within a few minutes. This ease of obtaining music is available to people worldwide, provided they have an Internet connection and a credit card.

It occurs to me that persons living in non-English speaking countries may be challenged to find suitable music. Is music available to them with the lyrics translated into their native language? Or, more likely, are they more interested in musical selections from their own culture? And if so, are these selections available for digital download?

The ability to play an instrument and to have almost unlimited choices of music available to me is truly a gift. I am so grateful that my parents didn’t allow me to drop my piano lessons even when I protested and didn’t want to practice. It is a skill that relaxes me, entertains me and keeps my mind active – a skill for life.