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Free Sheet Music Guide: Christmas & Traditional
A few recommendations for those in the Christmas Spirit!
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Editor's Picks...
Below are our personal picks, the sites that get our
highest recommendation for this genre. They are listed in alphabetical order.
Note:
Most of these sites do not exclusively feature Christmas sheet music. In other words, they have Christmas sheet music, but others
as well, so you have to navigate to the Christmas section of the site.
Finale
Showcase
Instrumentation for: Piano, Solo Instruments, Strings,
Brass, Band, More...
Categories: All
Catalog Size: Huge (1000+)
Every once in a while we stumble across an absolute gem of a free sheet music site. This is one of them. This popular
Finale showcase site allows Finale software users to upload their songs, arrangements, and compositions for shared viewing, playing and transposing. The result is this huge directory
filled with mostly easy sheet music arrangements for nearly all instruments in nearly every category. Classical
music includes everything from Baroque, to Renaissance, Medieval and 20th century tunes. You'll find contemporary
Christian music, gospel, children's music, country and rock music, rap music, show tunes, broadway, as well as
soundtracks and holiday music. Instrumentation includes not only solo instruments, but arrangements for brass band,
chamber, choir, handbells, and even percussion. Browse by category or instrumentation. You'll need Finale installed
(which is free for download) to view and print the scores.Updated 04/22/2003.
mfiles
Instrumentation for: Piano
Categories: Classical, Original,
Christmas
Catalog Size: Medium (50-100)
mfiles offers visitors a very nice collection of high-quality free
classical sheet music featuring music from Bach, Beethoven, Byrd,
Chopin, Debussy, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Saint-Saens, Satie, Tallis
and many more. In addition, mfiles has an attractive collection of Christmas music, as well as original sheet music
- most notably some very compelling pieces from composer Jim Paterson. These original works include music for film and television, as well as a number
of selections in the Jazz, Ragtime, Celtic, and Latin music genres. Downloadable sheets are provided in *.pdf format,
and all are also available in Scorch format (see site for details) allowing you to play, transpose, and change
instrumentation on the fly. Music for most selections are also available in MIDI or MP3 format, and you'll also
find detailed information about the various composers. Updated 01/07/2002.
Music-Scores.com
Instrumentation for: Piano, Violin, Sax, Clarinet,
Flute, Many Others
Categories: Classical, Christmas, Wedding
Catalog Size: Large (500+)
Music-Scores.com is a fantastic resource for those looking for free classical sheet music. This well-organized
repository features all the greats, including music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Handel, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Pachabel,
Schubert, and Tchaikovsky. Search by composer, instrument or style. Listings include notes on level of difficulty,
and scores are free and available to download in either Scorch or *pdf format. In addition to the well-stocked
library of free sheet music you'll find a discussion board, chat room, classified ads, and numerous links to other
sites. Updated 10/21/2002.
MySheetMusic.com
Instrumentation for: Piano, Violin, Clarinet, Flute,
Trumpet, Clarinet, More
Categories: Classical, Hymns, Children's, Christmas, Folk
Catalog Size: Very Large (500-1000)
MySheetMusic.com has one of the highest quality, most complete catalogs of free sheet music for piano and other
instruments that we've reviewed. Once you create a user account (which is free), you'll find dozens of titles,
sorted by category as well as alphabetically. While a majority of the pieces are classical, there is a considerable
selection of music from other categories including Ragtime, Hymns, Children, Folk, and Christmas. Most of the selections
offers at MySheetMusic are free, though a few require a pay subscription to download. All selections are available
in the popular *.pdf format and are very high quality. Note, free downloadable manuscript paper is also available.
Updated 06/24/2002.
Noel,
Noel, Noel
Instrumentation for: Piano, Guitar Lead Sheets, Voice.
Categories: Christmas
Catalog Size: Small (10-25)
Noel, Noel, Noel is a beautiful website dedicated to the celebration of Christmas. Included in their free online
offerings are over a dozen Christmas carols arranged both for each piano
(with voice parts) as well as for guitar, with melody and chords.
You'll find Away in a Manger, I Saw Three Ships, O Come All Ye
Faithful, We Three Kings and others. Well worth visiting if only
to view the site's original artwork. At Noel, Noel, Noel, you'll find lots of Christmas cheer to keep your days
jolly. Updated 12/03/2002.
Noteworthy Composer
Scriptorium
Instrumentation for: Piano, Strings, Orchestra and
Many Others
Categories: Classical, Christmas, Traditional Folk, Ragtime, Tin Pan Alley
Catalog Size: Very Large (1000+)
Users of Noteworthy
Composer, the software music notation software,
will appreciate the NCS database of compositions ranging from Classical to Christmas, Folk and Ragtime. There are
over 1000 compositions here, and the database is completely searchable. Or, if you prefer, browse by genre or composer.
In addition to the many *.nwc downloads, you'll find Noteworthy Tips & Tricks, an FAQ, and links to NWC forums,
newsgroups and other resources. Note that Noteworthy Composer is required to view these free downloads. The scriptorium
provides a link to download and install the free Noteworthy Browser Plug-In for those interested in viewing the files. Updated 03/11/2002.
Sally DeFord Sheet
Music
Instrumentation for: Piano, Choral
Categories: Christian, Christmas, Original
Catalog Size: Large (100-500)
Sally's web site features her many choral, duet,
solo and instrumental sheet music collections and arrangements primarily for the LDS church. You'll find cantatas,
childrens sheet music, Christmas sheet music, as well as a topical and alphabetical index. These collections are
free for download, and may be used for any non-profit event. All sheet music is available in *.pdf format, and
may also be ordered on CD-ROM. Updated 06/24/2003.
More Free Christmas Sheet Music Resources:
A
Traditional Music Library
Instrumentation for: Piano, Voice or Guitar (Lead
Sheets for All)
Categories: Traditional, Christmas
Catalog Size: Huge (1000+)
This huge sheet music library contains thousands of songs in a melody + chord format. The 'library' is divided
into 'songbooks' containing different styles of music making it easier to find the kind of music you want. For
example, there are bluegrass songbooks, songbooks containing Irish folk tunes, scottish, christmas, cowboy songs,
bawdy songs, 'well known traditional tunes', and many more. Once you select a songbook, you'll get a long list
of songs available in alphabetical order. Each song contains the melody, chords, and a MIDI file for the song so
you can listen to how it should go. The entire library is free here but also available for purchase on CD which
gives you much higher quality scores than those here. Also, don't miss the selections available in Noteworthy Composer
format. Added 06/05/2001.
Darrell Crowther - Choral
Arrangements
Instrumentation for: Piano, Organ, Voice
Categories: Christian, Christmas, Choral
Catalog Size: Small (10-25)
Darrell's choral arrangements for church include a SSAA rendition of Beautiful
Savior, as well as the popular Christmas selections
Joy To The World and Oh Come Let Us Adore
Him. Check out the barbershop quartet version of
Home on the Range. All sheet music in PDF format. Updated 10/29/2001.
Garden of Praise:
Arrangements for Piano 
Instrumentation for: Piano
Categories: Christmas, Popular
Catalog Size: Small (10-25)
Here you'll find some very easy piano arrangements for a number of popular, public domain songs. These include
several Christmas tunes, such as Silent Night, Deck the Halls,
and Rudolph,
the Red-Nosed Reindeer, as well as kids songs such as B-I-N-G-O, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and
Happy Birthday.
The sheet music is in *.gif format. Added 01/03/2003.
Michael Bednarek's
Mozart Files
Instrumentation for: Piano
Categories: Classical, Christmas
Catalog Size: Medium (50-100)
Michael Bednarek's collection features dozens of
free sheet music downloads produced by MOZART music notation software. Of particular note you'll find a majority
of the pieces from Le nozze di Figaro Mozart's famous Opera, as well as other works from both Wolfgang and Leopold Mozart, Bach,
and a other composers. Finally, the MOZART files features a nice selection of Christmas music, free for download.
All sheet music is available in Mozart, MIDI, and PDF format. Updated 10/07/2002
Public Domain
Sheet Music
Instrumentation for: Piano, Voice
Categories: Historical, Folk & Traditional,
Christmas
Catalog Size: Very Large (500+?)
A large selection of scanned public domain works copyrighted and published before 1922. The collection includes
many familiar tunes (Battle Hymn of the Republic,
Good-Night Ladies, Rock-A-Bye Baby) as well as
numerous popular, traditional Christmas carols. Music sheets are sorted in alphabetical order, in *.gif format
and while the scans are a bit on the fuzzy side, they are readable. Updated 02/11/2002.
RoDeby
Music: Church Sheet Music
Instrumentation for: Piano, Organ, Voice, Choral
Categories: Christian, Classical, Christmas
Catalog Size: Large (100-500)
This very interesting collection of church choral sheet music includes hymn arrangements, as well as Christmas
carols, chants, motets, organ works and descants. There are many notable selections in this mix of original and
classical/traditional works, including some more unusual works. Be sure to check out the 'compositions' as well
as 'arrangements' categories to find all the music. Sheet music available in high quality PDF format. Updated 11/23/2002.
Rycun Music
Company
Instrumentation for: Jazz Ensemble, Piano, Clarinet, Flute, Sax,
More...
Categories: Original, Christmas, Christian.
Catalog Size: Medium (25-100)
Jazz composer Ryan Cullen offers visitors his many original scores for jazz ensemble (as well as some solo jazz
piano) for download, including arrangements of The Lord's Prayer, Amazing Grace, and a few popular Christmas tunes. MIDI files are available for each selection
for listening, and level of difficulty for each selection is noted. In addition to these arrangements, Rycun offers
over 30 jazz lead sheets from his 'Online Fakebook'. Added 03/24/2002.
SibeliusMusic.com
Instrumentation for: Piano, Guitar, Voice, Strings,
Winds, Big Band, Etc.
Categories: Classical, Historical, Christian, Christmas, Original
Catalog Size: Huge
SibeliusMusic.com is the sheet music home of Scorch
software by Sibelius. The advantages of the site, when you have the free software plug-in, are many. For example,
you can transpose any song instantly, change instrumentation, and actually listen to the song while you view the
music with the click of the button. At the Sibelius site you'll find thousands of sheet music selections. Most
of these are for sale (they provide the first page free), but within each category you'll find plenty of free sheet
music titles to download. Unfortunately, Sibelius does not currently have a 'free' sheet music category to browse,
meaning the only way to find the free sheet music is to browse through the 'pay' sheet music. Sibelius does provide
a search tool, however, so if you're looking for a particular piece, it's quite easy to find it. Nice site, nice
design. Recommended for a visit. Updated 12/03/2002.
Something New for Your
Choir This Christmas
Instrumentation for: Piano and Choir
Categories: Christmas
Catalog Size: Very Small (Less than 10)
Here you'll find two original Choral arrangements for piano and treble choir. These include 'Falling Snow' and
'Ev'ry Time a Bell Rings'. Sheet music is viewable from your browser or downloadable. Use of the music is free.
To quote the composer, 'No royalties or other fees, professionally arranged, no gimmicks, no SPAM follow-ups or
other cheap tricks. We just want our music heard and performed at Christmas.' Added 09/09/2002.
Songs of Praise: Original Worship Sheet
Music
Instrumentation for: Piano, Guitar Tablature and
Lead Sheets
Categories: Christian, Christmas
Catalog Size: Large (100-500)
Here you'll find a fantastic collection of original
songs for worship and praise in your church by numerous artists. This well organized site features nearly two hundred
songs, most with free downloadable sheet music you can print right from your web browser. Each song also has a
midi file, and many of the songs also have RealAudio and MP3 files to listen to. There's also a very nice selection
of sheet music arrangements for original Christmas music. Many songs even include translations, for French, Dutch,
Italian, Chinese and many others. Check out the 'Jukebox' which allows you to listen to the songs featured here.
Updated 04/22/2002.
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