How to Find Free Sheet Music on The Web

How to Find Free Sheet Music on The Web

This document was created and can only be distributed by Sheetor.com. Any entity other than Sheetor.com claiming ownership of this document should be reported immediately.

How to Find Free Sheet Music Online

We have arranged this article in a way that allows you to use one method after another until you find the sheet music you’re looking for. The first method is the most effective followed by the second and so on. Always try to find the sheet music in order so you won’t end up wasting time.

Sheetor.com is by far the most complete source of free sheet music. It contains a few thousand scores; however it’s far from complete. I will give you a few tips to find what you’re looking for in Sheetor.com. Tip #1 Use a search engine. Sheetor has a built-in search function, but it’s not always accurate or complete. Moreover, if you can’t find what you’re looking for at first, go to Google and type: site:sheetor.com [keywords]. For example, if I’m looking for sheet music by the Phantom of the Opera, I type: site:sheetor.com Phantom of the Opera

Tip #2 Look for the author first. Many sheets are combined in a single PDF file and they are impossible to find with a search engine alone. You have a better chance of success by searching for the author first.

Tip #3 Request the sheet music. Requesting a particular score is very easy and you can even submit your e-mail address to receive a notification when someone finds it. You have nothing to lose by requesting it, even if you find it by using another of the methods outlined in this e-book.

P2P software

A very good way to find free sheet music is with P2P software. While most P2P programs will yield similar results, there are very significant differences that I will discuss.

eMule: This program is the best for finding rare files. While at first it’s slow, you will find files that aren’t found anywhere else. This is due to the eD2K vast network.

Tip: When searching for sheet music make sure the method is set to Global (Servers) and that type is set to Document. If you can’t find the score at first try, change the type to All and you might find the score with a different extension (such as .sib or .zip).
http://www.emule-project.net

LimeWire: Another of the best P2P programs out there is LimeWire. While the network is not as vast as eMule’s, LimeWire is much faster and you can very possibly find files not contained in eMule. http://www.limewire.com

Google It!

An easy way to find free sheet music is with Google. I will teach you how to use Google more efficiently to discard the garbage and find exactly what you’re looking for.

Use Quotes: Enclose “sheet music” within quotes and then type the name of the score you’re looking for. Say I’m trying to find All I Ask of You by the Phantom of the Opera. This is what I type in Google: “Sheet Music” “Phantom of the Opera” “All I Ask of You” As you will quickly notice, most sites require you to pay for the score. There are a few, however, that will provide the sheet music for free.

YouTube

There are millions of videos in YouTube and someone has already made a video for most sheet music. Try going to YouTube and searching “sheet music” + [what you’re looking for]. First look at the description, if the author is not providing a link to the sheet music, look in the comments. Most people have already asked and found the sheet music. If nobody has posted a link, your next best bet is contacting the author and asking for it.

Torrents

An excellent way to find sheet music is with torrents. The best website for finding them is http://www.pianosheets.org. Their powerful search engine gives you access to thousands of sheets that are, for the most part, very hard to find elsewhere. If you are open to suggestions (i.e. you’re not looking for a specific score), I suggest that you download a full collection of sheet music. How to download? Once you access pianosheets.org, you must register. Doing so is very easy and gives you access to several gigabytes of free sheet music. Click on “Sheets” and then look for the sheet music you want. When you find it, you’ll need torrent software. I recommend LimeWire because besides being a very useful P2P program, it also allows you to effortlessly download torrents. Other torrent finders include: torrent-finder.com, torrents.to, mininova.org, torrentz.com, torrentvalley.com, isohunt.com and torrentreactor.net. They are all very easy to use, but it might take you a while to actually find what you’re looking for.

Trade Sheet Music

Virtually all the sheet music you could ever want is in the possession of somebody else. While this might be a time-consuming process, it will eventually give you what you’re looking for. Many websites out there allow you to share sheet music; here are a few of the most popular ones.

Pianofiles.com
Look in the Free Sheet Music Websites:
http://www.sheetor.com/
http://www.writtenmelodies.com/
http://my-piano.blogspot.com/
http://pianotte.szm.com/
http://www.mx-music.com/
http://www.tapartoche.com/
http://pianomusicsheet.blogspot.com/
http://www.themusicblogger.com/
http://www.thepianocian.com/
http://words3music.100free.com/

There are many websites where you can request sheet music. Sheetor.com is one of them. Give it a try. Other places where you can request sheet music include:

8notes.com
Pianoworld.com
Music-scores.co.uk

Make it

Okay, you might not be a composer, but these programs are:

http://www.notation.com/Download.htm This is an excellent program that allows you to turn a simple midi file into sheet music. Obviously, it has some flaws or everyone would be using it, but you should give it a try anyway. The trial version is fully functional for 30 days.

http://www.musica.at/midinotate/ The second best program to convert a midi file into sheet music. What I like about this software is its accuracy and easiness of use.

Hint* Find a midi file that is played by the instrument you want. The simpler the midi, the more accurately it’s going to be transcribed. Many composers will charge you a small fee ($20-$30) for making a score specifically for you. As this e-book focuses in free sheet music, I will not recommend any composers but a quick Google search should do the trick.

Still haven’t found it?

Bad luck. The last thing you can do is request it at Sheetor.com.

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