This sticky topic is for the posting of websites that have LEGAL sheetmusic downloads.

http://www.pitt.edu/~deben/freebies.html

http://www.sheetmusicdigital.com/freepdffiles.asp

http://www.musicstudents.com/class.html

http://www.music-scores.com/piano/composer.php

http://www.allpianosheetmusic.com/free_piano_sheet_music.htm

http://www.sheetmusic1.com/new.great.music.html

http://www.easysheetmusic.com/popular_classics.asp

http://www.freesheetmusic.net/sheet_music_downloads.html

http://www.mfiles.co.uk/sheet-music.htm

http://www.mutopiaproject.org/browse.html

http://www.sheetmusicusa.com/piano/begin.htm

http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/

http://www.musicnotes.com/free/

http://www.easybyte.org/

http://www.pianostreet.com/search/form.php#silver

One more,
http://www.rowy.net/
regards

Free piano/vocal scores of most Wagner operas (Der Fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal). They are there in the form of image-files, and can be downloaded and printed out as such... Many great preludes to play (with), for example:

http://www.wagneroperas.com/indexwagneroperas.html

Some reminders:

1) I delete all discussion and requests. This is for the posting of links only.

2) Everything written in the United States in the last 75 years is under copyright and not legally available for free.

3) Link exchanges and forums will also be deleted. I know they're not "technically" illegal, but it's a grey area and I don't want to get Frank into any trouble.

4) Not everything old is legal. Editions of works can be copyrighted. While Beethoven himself owns no copyrights on his works, certain editions may be copyrighted.

5) Serious pianists own the scores to the music they play.[/b] It is my hope that people use these sites as a way to browse scores as one might browse through a music store. Once you find something you like, BUY IT. It keeps the publishers, retailers, editors, and composers in business.

Here's another...

http://icking-music-archive.org/#GMD-Music-Archive

Werner icking Music Archive at the Royal Academy of Music Aarhus (RAMA).

Well perhaps it is ok to add a shamless plug for my website Great Scores www.greatscores.com where wo do have some free music but the rest is charged for. This includes pieces that are in the public domain - however we take music and convert it to different ability levels. I would be pleased to know what people think.

Really now.

Two things:

1. "2) Everything written in the United States in the last 75 years is under copyright and not legally available for free."
Sorry, Kreisler, but this isn't exactly accurate. Generally, it is, but anything before the 1940s is a grey area. Please go to www.copyright.gov if you or anyone has any questions regarding U.S. Copyright law.

2. "The Russian site is not legal."
In Russia, "it" may be perfectly legal. It is up to you to determine the laws of your own country and abide by them. I do not know anything about the Russian site, but if it's a copyright question, feel free to see the above link. It will answer all copyright questions for U.S. "residents" (in this case, usually acceptably defined as one who accesses the internet from a U.S. location).

4) Not everything old is legal. Editions of works can be copyrighted. While Beethoven himself owns no copyrights on his works, certain editions may be copyrighted.

There are people who own Beethoven's music? that is messed up. I don't think he would be very happy about it.

Yep. Here's what happened:

Right around the time the large music libraries were created, people were accustomed to copyright laws, and knew that much of the music was free. So, the large music libraries said, "Well how do we get people to pay for our stuff instead of getting it for free?" The idea of "editions" came to mind.

The libraries began printing their own "editions" of the music. None of the notes are changed (usually), but because "so-and-so" edited it, or because the edition contains some sort of extra "fingering" or "useless information" (like a random poem that inspired the piece), they obtained a copyright for this particular edition of the work.

The next step was getting people to buy it. Well, what better marketing scheme than to have all the "experts" claim that "so-and-so's" edition is "better" than anybody else's? And that's what started to happen. Large libraries solicited to schools/conservatories for a fee, and after a while, all the students (who eventually became teachers) grew up with particular editions of pieces that they passed on to their students...and so on and so on until today.

The beauty of it is that the library ("company") owns the copyright...and as long as the company exists to renew the copyright, the particular edition of a piece will never enter the public domain.

But nearly every piece of music written prior to a particular decade (which I think coincided with WW2, but cannot remember particularly which year/decade this method became "standardized") was copyrighted to an individual composer first. This means that the original edition as written by the composer exists in the public domain no matter what editions are copyrighted to what libraries/publishing houses/etc. The trick is finding those editions...which is quite difficult, and in some cases requires visiting the Library of Congress itself.

Why is it so hard to find the originals? Because none of the libraries make money on them, and as long as they can keep the originals OUT of circulation, they own a virtual monopoly on sheet music.

free keith jarret transcriptions

http://www.keithjarrett.org/

Sure, I happen to know a great website for free piano sheet music! This site features 15 of my piano pieces which can be downloaded in their entirety both as PDF documents and MP3 audio files:

http://www.nedgerhart.com

My compositions for piano are really "standard songs": usually 32 bars in length and AABA in form. I am not selling my music through this website, nor is it published elsewhere as of yet. I have composed more than seventy-five pieces like these, and I am working on new ones all the time. Please have a look and listen!

Ned

Here's some more. they're free, so you can print them out on your home computer. Some of these also have MIDIs attached to them, so you know how the songs go:

[links removed]

If I find more links, then I'll post them.

Elicia

A great free resource, but may not be legal. Check out the "CD Sheet Music -" series. Each collection contains 1000+ pages of music on a varity of genres.
Pianosheets.com

Well, it's for those who are too cheap to buy sheet music, like I am. Since I use public library computers, I have to pay for the paper I print out.

[link removed]

Elicia

I have listened to one song and I am going to attempt learning one too...Looks very interesting and refreshing from most all of the pop that has been transcribed...thank you. :)Candles in the moonlight....thats the song for me..

I just subscribed to piano street and I get access to their sheet music library (almost everything for classical piano) and was able to print out obscurities that aren't on sheetmusicarchive.net. And it's $3 for a month. sweet

Piano Street is great... I signed up for monthly pay... ($3) within 2 weeks the sent me a code for $10 off the annual... SO I JUMPED. The files print out fine. I hope to save all the pdf files this summer during my school break.

I really liked the concise scale and arpeggio sheets they have...And there are a lot of urtext files. WONDERFUL RESOURCE. Cant say anything negative...

I notice that recently the site http://www.sheetmusicdigital.com/freepdffiles.asp
mentioned in the list by Kreisler in his opening posts to this thread, no longer allows free access to the 450+ free pdf files as offered on their home page. You are now redirected to the page for Gold Members and encouraged to sign up for a paid membership. Or am I not navigating the page correctly? The files which are free hold little interest for me.

i think sticking with store boubht music is the way im gonna stay. my rational behind it is as follows.
companies like schirmer really arent that expensive (altho reading some of these posts where subscriptions are only 3$ a month, subscription is a lot cheaper)
when you buy a composers etudes, preludes etc. for 7 bucks vs. a 3$/month subscription, your paying that extra money for the editing, revisions etc.
just for the sake of experiment i downloaded a few pieces i already had and compared them to the store-bought version. the online versions lacked in dynamic markings significantly. maybe i just downloaded off of a wack website, but i can handle the extra money (which isnt even that much, buying gas to get to the store is more of a hassle then buying the book) for those "extras".

I never got PianoStreet. Everything one can want is online if you know where to look.

www.everynote.com is a great site for classical music downloads. Loads of composers and pieces for a reasonable price. I just downloaded Sevilla by Albeniz for $1.80 (£1.10).

Here are a couple of freebie sheet and audio music sites that i've come across:

Free Jewish Sheet music here: http://www.mostlymusic.com/all_sheet_music.php

Here are two massive classical music MIDI and MP3 archives - great for trying out music before committing to learn the scores!:
http://www.classicalarchives.com

http://www.classiccat.net

Here's a fantastic resource for vocal and piano scores:
www.bach-cantatas.com is a fantastic online resource containing scores, commentaries, recordings, and a wealth of articles covering the vast scope of Bach's 224 (+?) cantatas.

I have to concur with Simon above regarding www.everynote.com - it's a fantastic resource for pianists (and vocalists and other instrumentalists, for that matter!)

Hope this helps...
Hugh Sung

Just found another one that is a work in progress , with 1061 pieces for all sorts of instruments right now.

IMSLP

Yes, I have that problem too. LEGAL downloads. *sighs* I've only tried:

PianoStreet
SheetMusicArchives
PianoWorld

I don't know of anything else.

Thanks for the great links!

In another thread dannylux[/b] posted a link to the Lilly Sheet Music Collection at Indiana University. If you're looking for popular music from the first few decades of the 20th century, this seems to be the place to find it. They claim 150,000 items (not all are digitzed for the web, however).


Lilly Sheet Music Collection Home Page

if you are not too fussy on (ahem) legalities and when the site is working (goes down 1 or 2 times every 2 or 3 months for a couple of days

www.pianosheets.org

you need to register its free no spy ad ware etc and use a client like utorrent.

it containes torrents to nearly all sheet music produced so if you need it it should be there if not ask and someone will upload for you