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Hi all.

Does anyone have any advice for finding sheet music, just generally, because whenever I hear something and I think to myself "ill try to find that", i search the net and can't find a decent version or a free version.

The other day I heard the Cheers theme tune. And I thought "yeah id like to find that". Cant find it on the net. Loads of links to it, all either stupid dodgy download sites or pay sites. Its only a theme tune for god sake, why I can't find a simple version????

Ive had the same problem with Grange Hill theme, Benny Hill theme etc.

There are 'lessons' on youtube but i just want the sheet. Its really starting to frustrate me.

Thanks
Dan

I check the usual suspects like Sheet Music Plus, Amazon and a couple other big sites. If none of them show it, then in all likelihood it has not been published by any "real" music publisher as their catalogs tend to be pretty well represented from those vendors. As you say, a Google search will just turn up spam and junk clutter whether there's any actual music out there or not.

If it's not published "for real" then you're basically looking for someone's quickie transcription of the tune. That's going to be hard to find amongst all the clutter than any music related search tends to elicit. In a lot of cases you'll probably just end up figuring it out yourself (assuming it's a real simple tune).

If you are not paying for copyrighted music, chances are it is dodgy to begin with.

Well its only a theme tune, probably 2 pages max. How can that be copyrighted?

Even if it was copyrighted, you'd think it would be out there and easy to find, a song as popular as the cheers theme.

Unfortunately i'm not good enough to figure it out by ear. especially the chords.

I do buy music - dont want you to think i dont pay for stuff! But a little ditty like a tv theme tune hardly seems worth paying for.

Dave Powers appeared on The Piano Guy and goes over some key points of the song. No sheet music but might be of some interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xG1gdHqk4w

There's no minimum length for a work to be copyrighted. If it's worth someone having, it's worth someone selling!

And this is why I recommend that you do just this -- learn it by ear. The only way to get good at this is to do it over and over again. Download Audacity so you can edit your music to repeatedly play one phrase over and over again, then loop it, listen a bit, try to imitate it, loop and listen again, and repeat. Trust me, the more you do this, the quicker you'll pick it up. You won't regret this one bit.

Hi Dan,
This link is the first page of 2 and pretty much gives away 90 percent of the sheet music. The second page is given to you if you pay 4 bucks. But there are only 4 or 5 measures left after the first page worth having if my memory of the TV show serves me correctly:

http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtdFPE.asp?ppn=MN0017915

If you start with this, you might be able to get the rest using the following link which shows the melody and chords in a fake book style:
http://leadsheetmusic.com/multifakebooks.brooklyn/01_Fake_and_Real_Books/Television_Themes.pdf

Scroll down to page 20. Start at the measure with the lyrics "You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same..." . There is one catch: You will have to transpose from the key of Bb (which this fake book document is written in) to the key of C, a whole step up, (which the first musicnotes.com sheet music document is written in). So, it will require a basic knowledge of voicing chords on the piano as well as a little transposing. If this is too much trouble, just pay the 4 bucks.

The above fakebook link also has the Benny Hill theme which is the song Yakety Sax.

Hope this helps! Good luck.

How could it NOT be copyright? It's a unique, recognisable piece of music. Therefore it's copyright. All the other stuff you may have heard about "how to copyright" a work are really about "how to PROVE you wrote, and own it".

But it is "out there", and it's very easy to find. Even, with a little ingenuity, without paying. Though it wasn't ME who told you so :-)

I use blogspot.com, some of them are a bit naff but you can find some good freebies!!

Like he said. That's excellent advice.

Except that I think Transcribe! is vastly superior to Audacity for that purpose. It's not free, but not very expensive especially considering how it'll change your life! (Not affiliated, just a happy user).

And sheet music for popular music is usually full of mistakes anyway. That goes for the books you buy in stores, but it's even more true for stuff that you download that were made by "some guy".

Another plug for Transcribe! which I've used for four years or so now. Easy to do looping of a certain section, the slowdown feature has better sound quality than most and there's also a very useful "FX" menu that lets you use EQ to isolate certain voices, turn stereo into mono, etc.

In addition to slowing down without changing pitch (and without sounding too choppy like some software slowdowns) it can transpose keys without changing the tempo. That can be surprisingly useful. The final feature is it will venture a guess as to what chords are being played at any point in time although like all such automated harmony tools it's a bit hit or miss on certain types of music.

NFI on my part. Just something I use constantly.

Transcribe! Ftw

Dang, why didn't you tell me about this sooner? This program looks to be awesome -- thanks for the advice!!!