Keyboard Sheet Music

If you’re searching for free violin sheet music on the internet, you’re most likely using a major search engine like Google, Yahoo or MSN. This is where you can run into trouble immediately. If you’re reading this article, then you have most likely typed into the search engine a search phrase like – Free Violin Sheet Music. You have just become fair game for everyone that wants to SELL you violin sheet music.

Here’s 3 Tips to help you find genuinely free violin sheet music on the internet.

Be Specific

Websites that actually offer free violin sheet music normally have one web page dedicated to one piece of music. Generally, the title of these web pages contains the specific name of the piece plus the composers name (almost always the composers full name). A title of a web page is the group of words that appear in the uppermost darken bar at the top of your browser (Mozilla Firefox, Windows Internet Explorer or Opera). Most search engines (like Google and Yahoo) use the title of a webpage (as a big clue) to determine what that particular webpage is all about. In addition, the title of a webpage, along with a meta-tag description is what is displayed as search engine results.

SEARCH TIP 1: Type the full name of the piece AND composer. If you know the opus number or the key, type that in too.

Types of Searches

When using search engines, most internet users use a broad search (just typing 1 – 4 words into the search box). A broad search returns results based on any single word within your multiple word search phrase. Here’s an example. If you typed… free violin sheet music… into Google, you will return approximately 450,000 results of any web page that matched any combination of those words. Results may include sites about ‘free sheet music’ or even just ‘sheet music’ (for any instrument).

The searches that return more specific results are searches with the keyword string contained with quotation marks. If you typed “free violin sheet music” (with the quotation marks) into Google, you will return approximately 40,000 results. There are much less results, but much more relevant to your search. Combine this with Tip No 1. and immediately you will find better results.

SEARCH TIP 2: Put quotation marks around your search phrases. E.g. “Free Violin Sheet Music”

Free or Pay

When you actually find violin sheet music that is totally free, you need to determine the credibility of the source. The internet allows anyone to publish almost anything. Less experienced musicians may have good intentions but their attention to detail may be lacking. In the transcription process some notes may be incorrectly notated. Most classical music written prior to 1923 are now in the public domain in the US, however certain arrangements of these pieces could be protected by copyright.

Searching the internet does take time and you may very well locate the exact piece of music that you want. However, you may find that it is only available from a legitimate publisher for a small fee of a few dollars. I have to ask you this question – “What dollar value to you place on your time?” There may not be a reliable free copy of that score available on the internet anyway, in which case you may spend hours searching only to come up short. My advice is to make a decision on a case by case basis.

SEARCH TIP 3: Sometimes it’s quicker to pay a few dollars and get a reliable score from a trustworthy source.