How to Find Cheap or Free Sheet Music

Tips and tricks, plus some websites…

If you’re a musician, you know the struggle of finding good sheet music. And if you don’t have the biggest budget, you know how nice it is when you find good free sheet music.

Before you resort to dropping a ton of money on music, consider your options. You won’t always find what you need for free. But you can try a few things out to save money on sheet music.

Stick to Public Domain

One of the easiest ways to get free sheet music is to play pieces that are in the public domain. These pieces have been out for a while, so they don’t have copyright protection, so you don’t need money to get the music.

You can find tons of public domain classical music from the Baroque era up until the early 20th century. So if you want to expand your repertoire on the flute or any other classical instrument, you can do so basically for free.

I will often look for public domain music when I want to learn something new. That way, I don’t have to pay, but I also don’t have to worry about shipping or other issues.

Use Your Ears

If you’re better at ear training than me, you may want to use your ears to learn music. A lot of pop and rock musicians do this when creating covers. And so can classical musicians who want to cover pop or rock songs.