Article

  
Music sheets - what is all about?
Back in the 19th century, songs in the United States were popularized by musicians through music sheets. It was only in the 1950s when musicians started to bring music sheets to bands so they could play, allowing more people to hear their compositions.

Simply, a music sheet is musical composition in printed form. It is composed of unbound sheets of paper where a musical notation of a song is printed. Many associate it with popular music. However, musicians say popular songs are not the only ones written down on paper. Many classical songs were published in music sheets and classical musicians performed even unfamiliar songs with these printed compositions.

When you talk about music sheets, they can be broadly classified into two types. Songs that are to be played only in one musical instrument (such as a piano or a guitar) are published in only one piece of music sheet. When a song is to be performed by several musicians, each musician has his own music sheet with his part printed on it. This kind of music sheet is referred to as a “part.” And when there are a number of musicians playing different kinds of instruments, the help of a music sheet named “score” is taken. This type of music sheet shows everything to be played in one place.

If you want to further classify, you can do so in case of a “score”. There are many types of scores like:
1. full score
2. miniature score
3. study score
4. piano score
5. vocal score
6. short score

All these types of scores differ from each other in terms of length and content.

Full score is a book that has all the music of the different instruments printed on its pages. A miniature score is a compact form of a full score. A study score is something in between a full score and a miniature score. It often adds informative notes about the piece.

A piano score is basically used by a pianist but in addition to giving information about the notes of the piano, it also gives info on the playing of other instruments. Vocal score on the other hand are used by singers. However, they may also have cues and notes like the piano score.

As composers finalize their music, they place it in a short score. In this kind of score, each music sheet of a particular instrument is shown in lesser staves.

Music sheets consist of various symbols which make absolutely no sense to the common man. The system of five lines and four spaces upon which musical notes are organized is called the staff. A backward ‘S’ with a few extra curly-cues thrown in, and centered on the second line up is called the treble clef. A backwards "C" with two dots around the second line from the top is bass clef.

Thus, a music sheet is a collection of various syllables which bring out the music from your hands and mind.

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads