There are dozens of web sites that allow you to download free sheet music, but only a select few offer downloads specifically for individual instruments such as the trumpet. The selection is further limited by the fact that in order for the sheet music to be offered for free, either it has to be out of copyright or the copyright holder must offer it for free of his own free will. In the case of the trumpet, good quality free sheet music is more difficult to come by than music for more popular instruments such as guitar or piano. In other words, with free sheet music you get what you pay for. Be ready for the fact that in a majority of cases the variety of music available for the trumpet will be very limited in terms of titles and in some cases the actual quality of the printed music itself may be less than ideal.

These caveats aside, it is still possible to find useful and easy to read sheet music for the trumpet if you know where to look. The big players in free sheet music directories such as FreeScores  and 8notes  have some of the more extensive collections of music for the instrument, however in some cases their free versions of sheet music are low resolution scans of music that has fallen out of copyright. Depending on the quality of the music that was scanned, these image files may be harder to read than scans that were converted to PDF format. Whenever possible, avoid pure image files such as jpegs and gifs. While there are always exceptions, image based scans of sheet music tend to be problematic when viewing and printing. PDF documents generally do not have this problem.

An excellent alternative to the big name free trumpet sheet music sites is to go looking at web sites such as the Finale Showcase or Sibelius . These companies produce software to enable individuals to write and print high quality sheet music. They also have areas of their web site that allow musicians and music educators to publish the music they have written for others to view and download either free or at a substantial savings over what you might find in a music store. Again, the selection will be limited, but with both products it is possible to download a free software program that you can use to transpose and edit downloaded music to fit your needs or playing range.

You might also find some of our local free sheet music files of interest. We have several pieces of popular Christmas and patriotic sheet music available here at MusicEdMagic. Most have seperate trumpet parts and many can be transposed automatically into whatever key you need.

Finding high quality free sheet music for the trumpet is a challenging task, but if you know where to look and what to search for you may just find exactly what you are looking for.

 

Tales From The Podium