Where to Find Free Sheet Music

Hundreds of thousands of pieces are free to download legally, from Bach chorales to ragtime and hymns. Here are the best places to look, what "public domain" really means, and how to get the music onto your tablet.

The Best Free Libraries

• IMSLP (Petrucci Music Library)

  The largest free library of public-domain classical music: full scores, parts, and piano reductions, many scanned from historic editions. Downloads are PDFs. Without a paid membership there's a short wait before each download.

• CPDL (Choral Public Domain Library)

  Free choral and vocal music, from Renaissance motets to hymns and folk-song arrangements. Many editions are newly typeset by volunteers and free to copy for your choir.

• The Mutopia Project

  Cleanly typeset editions of public-domain pieces, mainly classical and especially piano and guitar, free to download and share. PDFs come in both letter and A4 sizes.

• Hymnary.org

  A huge index of hymns and hymn tunes, with free printable scores for many public-domain hymns. Useful for worship teams and church choirs.

• Musopen

  A nonprofit offering free recordings, sheet music, and textbooks of public-domain music. Some downloads need a free account.

• Library of Congress

  Thousands of digitized historic American songs and piano pieces, many from the 1800s and early 1900s, as scans you can download.

• MuseScore.com

  A community site where people share their own arrangements. You'll find almost anything, from pop songs to film themes, but many downloads now require a subscription, and quality varies. Check that an arrangement of a copyrighted song is offered with permission.

What "Public Domain" Means

• In the United States, music published in 1930 or earlier is in the public domain as of 2026, and each January another year joins it. Many other countries count from the composer's death instead, commonly 70 years, so a piece can be free in one country and not in another.
• An edition can be newer than the music. A Mozart sonata is public domain, but a modern edition's editing, fingerings, and engraving may still be under copyright. Libraries like IMSLP and CPDL list each edition's status.
• Arrangements are separate works. A new arrangement of a public-domain hymn can be under copyright even though the hymn isn't.
• When in doubt, ask or buy. For church use, a license like CCLI covers many worship songs; for anything else, the publisher can tell you what's allowed.

Free Lead Sheets and Chord Charts

Lead sheets for standards are where copyright trips people up: fake books like The Real Book are published under license, and most jazz and pop standards are still under copyright. Free options:

• Pre-1931 songs. Many early jazz, ragtime, and popular songs are in the public domain, and you'll find free lead sheets and original sheet music for them in the libraries above.
• Write your own. Free notation programs like MuseScore Studio export clean PDFs, and a hand-written chart can be scanned or photographed into a PDF.
• Ask the songwriter or publisher. Many independent artists and worship songwriters share charts for their own songs.

Getting Free Music Onto Your Tablet

1. Download the PDF. On IMSLP, choose the edition, tap its download link, and wait for the countdown.
2. If the file holds a whole collection, save just the piece you need as its own PDF: most PDF apps can extract a range of pages.
3. Name it so it sorts in your set list, like 03 Ave Verum Corpus.pdf. The set list guide has more naming tips.
4. On the home page, tap Choose PDFs…, then share the room with your group.

Old scans often have wide margins: turn on Trim Margins in the room to make the notes bigger. Need a tablet? See the best tablets for reading sheet music.

Questions? See the FAQ or contact us.