Free Sheet Music

[littleplum]

Hi Folks

Free sheet music from www.wikifonia.org . check this out if you are looking for a particular tune.  You can change the key to what suits you best.

It does have the occasional mistake but nothing to worry about. 

Its all free and legal, I use it frequently to add tunes to my busking set.

Excellent site

regards

Dave

[Tony Edge]

Hi Dave

Many thanks for the link to wikifonia it?s brilliant. The place for musicians to publish and collaborate on lead sheets.

I don?t know why I had not seen this before. Being able to download music in different formats including .xml is just what is needed.

Many music books include a lead or backing tracks on CD. For a beginner like myself are of little use.  If you play both Tenor or Alto you have transpose that?s ok if you are a good at sight reading.

Some of the backing tracks become rather boring easy to spot on YouTube. I wish the music book publishers could include .xml and midi and .style sheets, all are very compact files. They could include formats for Band in a Box. And many other programs.

For these reasons I love this site.
Thanks again.

[littleplum]

Hi Tony

I use Wikifonia for my busking tunes along with spotify for the backing tracks, it can be a little long winded but the process goes something like this.

Decide on a tune.
Check wikifonia for the dots
check spotify for a karaoke track that is good quality.
play track and work out what key wikifonia needs to be in
Buy track
Workout geography
practice and play it.

That takes about 15 minutes (apart from the last item) and the jobs a good one.

try it, its fun

Dave

[Tony Edge]

Wikifonia is no more.

The Wikifonia site is not available anymore.
A license to secure the rights of copyrighted works could not be extended.
There is no more access to the Wikifonia lead sheet database.

What a shame.

My solution download the midi file you want to play and open the file in a free music program. .

Midi Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
MIDI has been around for a long time technology was standardized in 1983 by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA). All official MIDI standards are jointly developed and published by the MMA.
Advantages of MIDI include compactness (an entire song can be coded in a few hundred lines, i.e. in a few kilobytes),   the midi instructions describe a music score in far more detail than ever a written score.
A lot of music programs all have different user interfaces and don?t have a common gateway to mix programs. A bit like before windows all programs had a stand alone user interface.
Band in a Box is good. For modifying notation and tracks Sibelius is my choice. Pity Band in a Box and Sibelius are not combined into one package.

The only common gateway between music programs is MIDI.

Advantages of using midi rather than printed score.

(1)   Not only do you get the melody but also some amazing accompaniments.
(2)   They are free
(3)   It?s so easy to change the instruments, transpose, and simplify the music to your own musical ability.  Pick out parts for Saxophone.
(4)   Play along to the rhythm without a metronome.

(5)   You can play the midi files in Windows Media Player and select the file that has the best sounds.
        Windows 7 can be a bit fussy with midi. One solution is to use an alternative media player such as Apple quicktime.
        If you don't get any midi sound to your speakers.  Some sound cards output midi direct to your keyboard using Windows 7 Media player.
        Ideal for listening to a few bars before loading into your music programs.

        But the very best free midi player designed For Yamaha PSR & Tyros keyboards.  XG soundcards or GM soundcards should work with most KYB's
                                  Download the free MidiPlayer Version 8.3.1

         by Michael Bedsem  from http://psrtutorial.com/
         Play files from a PC. Revoice instrument voices and OTS for your instrument, Repair files, Display and edit file data
         Processing many files at once.  Pass files to sequencers and other utility programs.
         Accepts midi, pad, and styles from all recent instruments.
                                            Windows 7. To set up your midi interface.

                                         (a) Plug in your usb midi interface.
                                         (b) Install MidiPlayer ver 8.3.1
                                         (c) click on C:\Program Files\MidiPlayer\PLWMidiMap.cpl
                                         (d) Select your usb to midi-keyboard.

       
(6)   Part of the fun being able to arrange the music and printout beautiful score import lyrics. Include pictures.

Disadvantages using midi
(1)   some editing is needed to make the music easy to read. But quite easy in programs like Sibelius.
(2)   Midi sound quality is dependent of your sound card and of course the speed of your PC. Slow net books and very old laptops don?t sound good but hook up a good second hand Yamaha midi keyboard such as Yamaha PSR520 with the Yamaha XG midi set can be bought for about ?50 on EBay. Connect this to your HI FI for superb sound

Downloads and free programs
(1)   Use Firefox as a browser with a plug-in downloadthemall  is very useful plug-in to prevent having to download each file one by one.
        Or for Google Chrome browser install a plugin  ?Download Master?
        chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/download-master/mcceagdollnkjlogmdckgjakjapmkdjf
        Use the filter *.mdi  to select just the midi files.
(2)   After time you may end up with thousands of songs in your midi folders. Windows XP search is quite good but I find windows 7 search poor. A program named FileSearchEX by GOFF Concepts very good you can use it free for a month. But if you like the program it cost $5 just a few pounds in the UK. And they accept payment by PayPal.
(3)   Sibelius demo can be downloaded free. Other free basic programs can be found on the Internet. Search Google for free music programs.
(4)   Millions of Karaoke files can be downloaded free.
(5)   To convert a .kar file just rename the file .mid or midi
If you have hundreds to convert copy the .kar files to a new folder but keep the .kar files they may come in use later.
(6)   Conversion from a dos command prompt >rename *.kar *.mid
(7)    Question after downloading hundreds of midi file they are all compressed as zip format.
How do I unzipp all the files in a folder all at once not one at a time.
download a free program 7-zip
highlight all the files right click "extract here".
7-Zip is open source software. Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license.
download from http://www.7-zip.org/


(         How do I keep all my files up to date on all my computers. I have 40 GB, over a million midi files. I use an old 2.5? Sata disc drive that was redundant after an upgrade. From EBay bought a case for ?5.
This is the item description:-
2.5 SATA to USB HARD DRIVE CADDY HDD CASE ENCLOSURE -  FOR external Use
Shell material: Aluminium - Dimensions: 129 x 75 x 12.5mm.No external power required. Plug in and play. Supports Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista/ Windows 7/Mac OS 8.6 or latest versions. Compatible with USB 2.0, SATA/ESATA. 480Mbps data processing speed.Stable and quick.
Large storage support. Hot-Swappable with Easy Plug & Play Supports 2.5" SATA Hard drives any speed up to 500GB Thickness 9.5mm. Product Details: Shell material: Aluminium  Dimensions: 129 x 75 x 12.5mm.
Pack includes1 ? Leather Case1 ? Screwdriver2 ? Screws1 ? 2.5" Sata External Hard Case for Hard Disk Drive1 ? 1 to 2 USB Cable.


(     A free program named Synkron keeps all my computers up to date in minutes using the external drive.
Synkron
Version 1.6.2
http://synkron.sourceforge.net/
Synkron is a simple Qt application designed for easy folder synchronisation.
This programme is distributed under the terms of the GPL v2.
2005-2014 Mat?? Tomlein
-----------------------------------------------------------
How do I prepare a music session with friends?
Use a free cloud program
Save your PDF or Midi or .sib file to the free cloud program

https://www.dropbox.com/

You can save the music to a folder on your computer by simply dragging and dropping any file to the dropbox folder.
For ease of use. Click on the shortcut on you desktop C:\Users\*\Dropbox
The free version allows 2gb of store space.

Invite your friends to join and practise the tunes prior to your music session

They will see the folder on their computer no need to email files.
Checkout tutorials on YouTube.

https://www.dropbox.com/

[littleplum]

Hi Tony and other members

Long time no speak, but I just spotted this thread that I had contributed to before and had a look at whats been happening since.

I have a couple of thoughts to throw into the ring for you regarding Wikifonia and Midi Files.

Lets start with Midi Files.

As Tony said this is a great way to get free sheet music and I use this method all the time, just be careful as some midis dont have a melody line, they are designed to be useed as a backing track.

I have a wedding to play at tomorrow and the Bride has asked for the theme to Batman (1960s version) as they come back up the Aisle? the only way I could make this work was by using a midi file both for the dots and for the backing track.  We will see how that goes tomorrow.

Tony also mentioned using Sibelius to open the midi files, which is great if you have a copy. however it is pretty expensive to buy, so I use Musescore.  This is a free music writing programme that is easy to use.  There is a great help section and online forum for any help you may need.  Version 2 is also offering the oppertunity to scan in a pdf of some music and it will allow you to manipulate the pdf to change key etc.

The second point is regarding Wikifonia, as Tony rightly said it has closed down, however, just after it closed down a link was circulated giving you access to all 6000 plus songs and it was only 39mb big.  If any of you want all of the songs you can contact me at dave.saxteach@yahoo.co.uk and I will put them into Dropbox for you. These can also be manipulated in Musescore.

Hope that helps

cheers

Dave