Online Sheet Music Resources

When I need a particular piece of sheet music or even a full book, one of the best ways to get the best price and find exactly what I'm looking for is to shop online. Here are some of the sites that I have found to very helpful in my search for sheet music.

1. J.W. Pepper

JWPepper.com has a great selection of music for orchestra, band, choir, and other settings. The website is fairly easy to navigate and includes pictures of the products that are listed. J.W. Pepper also attends many music events and maintains a list of all these events on the website. If you prefer to peruse music selections in person rather than online, you may wish to attend a live event. Also on the website is a music list feature on which you can share a particular list of music with students, peers, band members, or whomever you wish.

2. Sheet Music Plus

SheetMusicPlus.com boasts "the world's largest sheet music selection." With over 800,000 different products available, you can find almost anything you need on their site. The look and feel of the website reminds me of Amazon.com. Sheet Music Plus has over 143,000 digital sheet music downloads available as well.

3. MusicNotes.com

Musicnotes.com has almost 250,000 digital sheet music download files available. The nice thing about digital sheet music is that it is instantly available, with no shipping delay or shipping cost. MusicNotes.com also has regular hard copy music books.

4. Public Domain Music Sites

If you love playing and performing music that is from the classics of years gone by, then you will love public domain music sites. Older music that has become free public domain material is available on several sites. A great one is the Choral Public Domain Library, which has many classic choral pieces available. Another is IMSLP.org, which contains works by over 7,800 composers and well over 200,000 music scores, absolutely free. You can find other sites that offer free public domain sheet music by searching on Google or other web search engines.

5. CD Sheet Music

Another tremendous resource that I and other music teachers that I know have used is CD Sheet Music. While this is not an "online" resource, I felt that it was appropriate to include in this post because it is accessed through the computer. The idea that CD Sheet Music has embraced is assembling great copies of music from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern eras, including works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, piano, strings, winds, voice, and chorus -- then making these works available in the convenience of a CD-ROM collection. You can print as many copies as you want, reproducing them for fellow performers or for students.

6. Ebay

One site that you may not have thought about is ebay.com. As of the writing of this article there are over 199,000 items on ebay under the "Sheet Music & Song Books" category. You can find many scores that are out of print and not otherwise available without scouring antique stores or resale shops.

Much time and effort can be saved by finding sheet music online. These resources are just a few that may be beneficial to you in locating the sheet music that you need. If you know of other great resources that should be considered, please post a comment to this article (top right).