Free Sheet Music Library

Here at the Harrisonburg Musical Memories chapter, we understand that sheet music can often be expensive and extremely hard to find. Therefore, we have compiled a list of online sheet music databases across different genres of music and capabilities for your convenience!

Musescore (https://musescore.com/): MuseScore is an open-source, cross-platform software for creating, sharing, and viewing musical notation! Musicians have the opportunity to compose, arrange, and transcribe music on desktops and laptops. A user-friendly app version of MuseScore also exists, allowing users to view and play scores in a tremendously convenient manner. Additionally, playback and tempo features allow for efficient practice. Lastly, scores can be exported in various audio/graphic formats, underscoring (pun-intended!) the importance of accessibility and versatility in music.

IMSLP (https://imslp.org/): IMSLP, also known as the International Music Score Library Project, is a wiki-based digital libtrary providing free public domain music scores! Users can view and download PDFs of instrument-specific parts, find recordings, and exchange musical ideas in "Forums" and "Wiki Talk Pages". Scores are separated into various different categories, such as genre, composer, time period, among many other distinctions. Approximately 247k works and 823k scores have been compiled in IMSLP, highlighting the expansiveness of this database!

ChoralWiki (https://www.cpdl.org/wiki/): ChoralWiki is the online portal of the Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL), a volunteer-driven, non-profit organization providing free public domain and openly licensed choral music scores. It allows for collaborative editing to add and maintain a vast catalog of scores, composer information, and discussion forums. Music is available for download in various formats, including PDF, MP3, and MIDI, making it optimized for both performers and educators. CPDL boasts an index of 10,000+ different works across the efforts of 500 contributors!

Mutopia Project (https://www.mutopiaproject.org/): The Mutopia Project features over 2.1k pieces of music; all of which are free to download, modify, print, copy, distribute, perform, and record! The music is typeset using GNU Lilypond software and offered as high-quality PDF files or MIDI audio files. While there are some modern, folk, and jazz arrangements, the primary focus of the Mutopia Project is expanding access to classical repertoire. This includes J.S. Bach's English/French Suites, Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, Haydn's String Quartets, and Mozart's "The Magic Flute", among many others!

Flat.io (https://flat.io/): Flat is a collaborative music notation platform for beginner composers and professionals alike! It has become a prominent digital resources in the music community due to its real-time collaboration features and educational functionality. Flat's interface is similar to Google Docs, but for sheet music, allowing multiple users to edit a score simultaneously. Its educational version contains a suite of integrational capabilities for learning management systems like Google Classroom. Lastly, users can save/export scores as PDF and MP3 files, or share their compositions. 

Noteflight (https://www.noteflight.com/): A cloud-based music notation software that allows users to create, play, and share music compositions online. It offers features for composing with standard notation and accessing a large catalog of digital sheet music. Noteflight also provides different plans, such as a free option and premium tiers for expanded features. Interestingly enough, Noteflight users can arrange and sell their own sheet music through a platform marketplace!