I’ve spent the morning looking for free downloads and found some stuff I thought I would share. I should add that I have been looking for simple piano scores to popular songs rather than classical piano. There are some fantastic free sites out there for piano music http://www.freesheetmusic.net been a good place to start.
Sites like the following promise a lot but are either hideously complicated, broken, or not what they advertise.
http://www.sheetmusicengine.com
www.8notes.com – this site is just confusing. If you go in through the main web page and follow the free links you can access a limited number of free gif files. However, if you follow a google link for a specific song, you’ll end up playing for it.
http://www.free-scores.com – This one goes under the ‘hideously complicated’ heading. There seems to be a lot of content but finding something useful is very difficult.
My most useful site for popular music has been http://www.pianofiles.com/ The listing here isn’t huge but it is varied and comprehensive.
Just as an aside there is a fantasic(ish) blog called http://truepianotranscriptions.blogspot.com/ It contains full transcriptions of possibly many piano pieces. However, there is no index of blogs, no blogger info, no list of pieces. It’s like an idea almost realised.
But by far the most useful overall has been:
There are hundreds of free Midi sites out there. True, you do need a MIDI player. I have been opening the files in Sibelius which instantly creates you a full score.
Obviously I’m not the only one to have this idea so here is a selection of other bloggers who have made lists of free sheet music sites:
http://truepianotranscriptions.blogspot.com/ – A blogger who started played in Januray 2010
http://thepianostudent.wordpress.com – A brilliant resource directory
http://worship1.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/tough-times-small-budget/ – Links to a website for free Gospel sheet music
joannerosecarr 