Is Musescore/MusicNotes fees reasonable? Worth it?

ShigeruKawai

I'm 'this' close to paying because I really like to get the sheet of the music I listen to on Youtube. (Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen for example) But I don't know if it's worth it. I'm a beginner too.

Khuja Wangtishvili

Musescore often is giving you big discounts, so use it for free, do not use for a week or two and I often had offers like 12$/year, which is definitely worth it.

But good sheet music costs money, which is understandable. You can alternatively hone your skills and learn to play by ear 🙂

amc252

ShigeruKawai You can download any score/midi file from musescore for free through discord.

ShigeruKawai

amc252 What does that mean? Midi? The sound of like a toy? Why would I want that?

amc252

ShigeruKawai I mean that you can donwload for free any music sheet (or the corresponding MIDI file) from Musescore for free through a channel on Discord.

David B

I've used https://www.musicnotes.com over the years I've been playing. I just pay for a song whenever I want it. Most of the time I use it as a guide to enhance my own arrangement. I like the accompanying app and now there are sometimes YouTube tutorial videos that come with the songs. I think the price per song has gone up over the years, but I think it's still reasonable.

God Bless,
David

kanadajin

ShigeruKawai I am not a beginner and I would not pay for access to the MuseScore library since I consider that it is generally rather mediocre in quality. You may want to try accessing some of the free score downloads to judge for yourself.

Here is what I wrote in another forum: "I have given up altogether on the MuseScore Library a while back as it is too unreliable. Anybody and everybody puts up scores and you end up with only a few good ones in a sea of mediocrity. (at least that has been my own experience - I only look for advanced level pieces)

I have seen all kinds, believe me, such as some that were obviously not written by pianists (even though a piano piece to begin with) or with only very limited knowledge of music, some others I qualify as being blatantly done by automatic music « transcription » software with absolutely NO proofing afterwards (what a mess!), and so on. In one particular case, I tried to start correcting all the inaccuracies in a score myself but the process was so time consuming and frustrating that I instead ended up throwing it away, and starting from scratch by doing all the work myself, and the progress was much faster. One is never better served than by oneself they say."

Khuja Wangtishvili

Yes, but they have big catalogue of official scores too

ShigeruKawai

kanadajin How about MusicNote?

kanadajin

ShigeruKawai I do not have as much experience with MusicNotes as I used them for the first time only this year (2024). I am probably pretty selective and purchased a few scores but only from one of their Signature Artists (which is only a subset of their catalogue) and made sure to listen carefully beforehand to the YouTube recording of the actual score performed by said artist (NOT the rendition from automatic embedded reader on the web page). I am so far pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of the scores I purchased, and also the fact that the hand splitting seemed right. Based on this I would use them again. I waited for one of their (frequent) sale events before pulling the trigger and got 20 or 25% off as I remember, making it more worthwhile.

For context, you have to understand that I have been disappointed way too many times in the past with the pitiful quality of many commercially available (and official) latin, pop and jazz arrangements that for years now, I ended up mostly generating my own whether through transcribing specific versions of songs that I particularly like or if not improvising my own arrangements, putting into practice what I learn as I progress with theory and technique. I then use MuseScore strictly as a music notation software to write out anything from full scores to lead sheets or "in between" - it is much faster and neater than doing it by hand with manuscript paper and pencil/eraser! This way, I have something to fall back upon when, years later, I am thinking hey, I used to play this - gosh how did I play that then?

Pimmmas

I have a paid yearly subscription to Musescore, but most content is user generated and therefore not very good. But, like others pointed out, if you can get it on a discount, it is definitely worth it. Especially as a beginner. Another site I frequently send my beginner students to is Noviscore. They have a limited (a few hundred) selection of songs, but almost all songs have been transcribed by professionals and they offer almost all songs in a 3 level system where level 1 is for beginners and level 3 is for advanced players. Their sheet music is of high quality in my opinion. There is no subscription and you need to pay per score (it's €4.99 I believe) but if you add credit to your account you will get free scores of your choice, effectively making the sheets very cheap if you're willing to buy in bulk.

kawafanboi

there's a way to steal the non premium sheets.

RIP

ShigeruKawai I don't know if it's worth it

Depends what you mean by "worth it". If you need it, it's worth it, if you don't it's wasted.

Musescore is an open source notation software which you may or may not like, which funds itself with the website. I like the I idea, but in general I don't particularly like those scores, which I believe are made by volunteers, so quality is hit-or-miss.

MusicNotes is a non-traditional publisher, which hires people and at least in part vets their content. I personally know one person who posts his scores there and they are very good (can't vouch for other artists). However I've always had troubles purchasing from that shop, I think they are too aggressive with their DRM and I would not recommend them blindly. So consider that, especially if you use Linux, and if you are okay with that and you like what they offer....

johanibraaten

The big advatage with Musescore is that you can get scores that you can edit to your own liking in the Musescore app. But you have to do some research to find good scores and arrangements. As Del Vento puts it, It's a bit of a hit-or-miss. There are some really good scores but there are also a lot of crap.