Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Popular Music (Sheet Music)

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Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 08-19-2003, 10:18 PM:

Hi All,

I was wandering where I could find sheet music for popular recent and current hits. I've searched but found nothing.

What I'm really looking for is "Hey Baby" by the band No Doubt. I want to rewrite this song to be "grotesque" as you could call it.

You may ask why.. Well... I don't feel like writing any more music for my band at the moment... also... I wanted to try something new by rewriting a dance hit (by one of my favourite bands), as a loud/angry hit such as what Marilyn Manson does. An example is how Marilyn Manson redid Tainted Love.

Any help would be extremely appreciated!

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-19-2003, 10:26 PM:

You'll hardly ever find sheet music of contemporary songs available for free download. Classical is easier to find but there's never any guarantee that what you will find is what was actually written.

There are some sites that will give you guitar chords and lyrics and perhaps even some TAB transcriptions or interpretations but if you want the real deal then check out the following links...

SheetMusicPlus (PVG)
SheetMusicPlus (TAB)

By the way...PVG is abbreviation for "Piano/Vocal/Guitar" which means you will have three staves -- the grand staff for piano (that's two) and one for the vocal line(s). Guitar chords will be provided above the staves and may be in graphical frames or by name only (e.g. A7, Em, etc).

Books of sheet music are often cheaper at Amazon.com but they don't sell sheets for individual songs.

The search engine at Sheet Music Plus is good because it allows you to search by song title, artist, etc and it will actually find songs that are part of a larger collection in book form. The search engine at StagePass doesn't always find what you're looking for.

I've ordered from both places (and Amazon) and have no complaints.

You may even find the song available for immediate download at these sites.

Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 08-19-2003, 10:30 PM:

Thanks!

I'm gonna buy the PVG one, as I'm comfortable with piano/keyboard. I've barely even touched a guitar, but I'd love to learn it!

I was also hoping someone would just have a link for pirated sheet music [Big Grin]

...

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-20-2003, 08:00 AM:

Check your local music store (the kind that sells musical instruments, as opposed to a record store). Most of them should have a good collection of sheet music which might include current hits as well as classics. At the very least, they could direct you to a local store that carries what you want.

Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 08-20-2003, 01:43 PM:

Here's a further question: where can I find piano sheet music of popular (piano-accompanied) songs that actually tries to provide an accurate transcription of the piano, as recorded? Most piano sheet music versions of pop songs are pretty basic and simple, nowhere near as rich as the recording. Only guitar tablatures seem to be very accurate.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 08-21-2003, 03:13 AM:

It's faster & easier to transcribe guitar lines.
Piano accomp on popular music, like a guitar part, is usually worked out in the studio or wherever then performed by memory. Whoever is transcribing the piece for sheet music isn't going to pick apart the actual piano arrangement.

It's a phenomenon that goes way back. I've got three different sheet music versions of Pine Top's Boogie Woogie, & none of them is what he played.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-24-2003, 03:44 AM:

The answer is basically that you won't usually find an exact transcription. PVG sheets seem to focus on the vocal line insofar as verbatim notation is concerned (and that's not even a guarantee).

The thing to bear in mind is that in many instances the piano accompaniment represents a distillation of the entire band and/or orchestra. Certain key phrases of instruments that aren't being included may find their way into the published version. By the same token, the editor usually simplifies things by removing notes, changing chords and occasionally changing the key "to render the piece more playable."

Quite often the songwriter(s) will only provide a chord progression and a melody line. At the time of recording and a lot of embellishing is expected of a professional studio musician.

The actual transcribing happens later in MIDI labs at the publishing companies.

Sometimes, the reverse is true: a full score is written and subsequently embellished in performance. What gets published is a transcription of the manuscript. This is common with songs that were written for musical productions.

As noted previously, there are special editions of sheet music prepared specifically for guitarists who want to learn to play the song exactly as performed.

I have seen some listings of complete and accurate transcriptions of The Beatles but not all of them get high marks. I haven't seen those first-hand -- the high price turns me off and, besides, it never bothers me when the piano line isn't exact. I'm usually quite happy with what's provided.

I own the Elton John collection which contains all of his hits plus some not-so-great hits. It can't be called a complete collection because a number of really cool songs are absent but the piano accompaniment seems very accurate.

Ditto for The Eagles book -- haven't studied that one in detail yet but a quick glance when it arrived looked very satisfying in terms of the accuracy of the arrangements. What I've seen of the Pink Floyd: The Wall book (PVG) is promising, too. But I'll say again -- I haven't studied them closely yet.

"The Prince of Egypt" book is also quite accurate but there again you have a distillation of an entire orchestra. Quite an accomplishment, really.

Christopher -- I'm curious: What song(s) were you thinking of when you asked your question?

Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 08-24-2003, 03:56 AM:

William, Manny, thanks for the information.

Funny you should mention Elton John, Manny, since that's who I'd had in mind, due to the prominence of the piano parts in his songs... or, some of them, anyway. Actually, I'm a big fan of the Eagles too... wouldn't mind having the piano part to "Last Resort" (yes, I'm too lazy to just work it out). I actually hadn't done any research, but based on the PVG books I've gotten before, I thought there wasn't much good out there. I'd definitely appreciate any specific publishers, ISBNs, etc. on this.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 08-24-2003, 04:01 AM:

This is the collection I have:

Elton John Collection (Amazon.com)

The ISBN is 0793594162.

Any particular song(s)? I can do a listen/read comparison for you.