FIG. 1: MusicNotes.com offers more than 17,000 titles and uses a proprietary viewer as well as the Scorch plug-in.

Sheet music is an essential tool for music teachers, but we don't always have time to wait for printed music to be delivered or to locate specific pieces at retail stores. Vendors of digital sheet music have solved that problem by allowing us to download complete scores and parts using the Internet. There are hundreds of digital sheet music sites, however, and it can take time to find what you need in a format you can use.

All commercial digital sheet music sites share certain things. They allow you to search by keyword, composer, title, and other categories. They provide a free preview of the first page of each score. In some cases, MIDI playback of the score is also available. After you purchase a score, you are allowed to print the entire score from the Web site or, in some cases, you can download a graphic image of the score and print it at your convenience. The cost per score is usually quite low, between $1.50 and $5.

Many digital sheet music sites use Web-browser plug-ins that allow customers to preview scores before purchase. These file viewers allow vendors to control how much access customers have to the score. The older sites use proprietary plug-ins such as the MusicNotes Viewer (www.musicnotes.com), SafePublish (www.sheetmusicnow.com), and the Solero Viewer (www.sunhawk.com). The newer sites primarily use Sibelius's Scorch plug-in.

With Scorch, the customer can view a single page or an entire score, can transpose and listen to a score, and can print a score in high resolution directly from the Web. What you do not get is an electronic file. That means that if you want to print additional copies, you either have to do so from the vendor's Web site or you need to photocopy existing printouts.

Some vendors and many free sites allow customers to download PDF files of the scores. That provides an additional convenience of being able to print copies without repeatedly visiting the vendor's Web site. I found only one site (www.Music-Scores.com) that combines both Scorch and PDF technologies to provide the best of both worlds.

www.musicnotes.com (see Fig. 1) bills itself as the leading Internet-based sheet music store, with more than 17,000 titles available for immediate download. It sells works from many of the big music publishing houses, and offers digital sheet music as well as conventional printed sheet music. The service uses a proprietary MusicNotes viewer and uses the Scorch plug-in for more than 15,000 titles. The search feature worked well, and the score I printed from the site was quite readable.

FIG. 2: Specializing in piano, violin, and classical-guitar sheet music, EveryNote .com delivers what appear to be scans of old public-domain printed editions.

www.everynote.com claims to have “the most complete digital library of piano, violin, and classical-guitar sheet music in the world” (see Fig. 2). Currently, that amounts to about 5,000 titles. The complete works of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, and others are available here. Customers pay to download PDF files that appear to be scans of old public-domain printed editions. The print quality is adequate but not as nice as some of the sites that use the Scorch plug-in or higher-resolution PDF files. Nevertheless, the convenience of having the PDF file on your hard drive may outweigh the difference in print quality.

The French site www.score-on-line.com has classical, jazz, and flamenco works. After purchase, you will receive an email message with a link where you can download your password protected PDF files.

FIG. 3: VirtualSheetMusic.com has a small collection of 848 classical-music titles in PDF format. You can audition MIDI files for each work before purchasing.

www.virtualsheetmusic.com has a small collection of 848 classical-music titles available for download in PDF format (see Fig. 3). Customers can pay per download or have unlimited access to scores for $40 per year. Each work has one or more MIDI files, so you can hear it before purchasing.

Several larger vendors offer online scores. J.W. Pepper offers digital music at www.jwpepper.com/eprint. Pepper is the most expensive site I found, but the selection and service are excellent. Sibelius operates www.sibeliusmusic.com, and Make-Music (makers of Finale) operates www.finalemusic.com. The latter two sites offer large selections of free scores.

There were far too many great sites to be able to include them all in this column. For example, many small sites offer free downloads of public-domain music in PDF form. For links to those sites and others, visit my Web site at www.stevenestrella.com/mused/websitings.html.

Steven Estrella owns Shearspire, Inc., and StevenEstrella.com, creating interactive media for business and education. He teaches for Villanova, Duquesne, and Central Connecticut State Universities and is on the National Board of Advisors and Board of Directors of TI:ME. Contact him at steve@stevenestrella.com.