1. Searching for Scores by Instrumentation, to See What's Available 

If you already know the name of the composer and perhaps a keyword from the title of a piece of music you would like to play, and are seeking the score online, skip this section and go to Searching for Specific Scores below.

Fortunately, in the online research environment it is not necessary to know exactly what you are fishing for in order to catch fish. Many guitarists enjoy the delights of discovering music previously unknown to them while browsing online. Serendipity can be very rewarding! Here are some resources and strategies to maximize your results when you are browsing for published scores.

The key to success in this kind of search is to fish in an appropriate pond using appropriate lures. For example. if you are curious to see what exists for clarinet and guitar, you can search Google for keywords like [guitar clarinet scores]. You will retrieve over 100,000 Web pages, but the relevance of the retrievals may leave much to be desired.

In contrast, an intelligent subject-search of the largest online library catalog in the world, OCLC's WorldCat (click http://worldcat.org/, then click the "advanced search" link) will result in many more pertinent score retrievals. In WorldCat you can browse scores for every conceivable combination, limiting your search by format (Musical score). The quality of your retrievals will depend on the quality of your search strategy. Here's a simple example:

Suppose you want to see what kind of music has been cataloged for clarinet and guitar.

a) Example of a broader WorldCat search

b) Example of a more focused WorldCat search

• Use the precise LC subject heading for the instrumentation you desire in the Subject field—in this case it's "clarinet and guitar music." This search brings back over eighty responses representing nearly as many original published scores for clarinet and guitar.
• You can use WorldCat's library locator feature to see where a copy of a score that interests you might be found.
• Even if you want to buy scores rather than borrow them, the cataloging in WorldCat will be reliable enough to allow you to search for a precise title or publisher online; purchasing the scores online would then be an option.

2. Searching for Specific Scores

When you know the composer's name and at least the key elements of the title (like the opus number) of a certain work, often it is best to start searching for it on the "advanced search" page of WorldCat, described above. No other database will allow you to search a billion cataloging records from over ten thousand participating libraries worldwide. If you locate a score you wish to see, you may be able to borrow it from a nearby library. At least you'll be able to identify one or more publishers, for purposes of placing a subsequent order.

Let's use the little facsimile pasted below for the exercise: Carulli's Easy Pieces for Solo Guitar, Op. 121.

It should be clear, now, that a very smart way to search for published scores worldwide, especially when you would be happy with a modern edition as opposed to something archival, is by using WorldCat. It used to have restricted access (only for member libraries, who used it to share cataloging efforts), but lately it has become free for all, for purposes of searching. It is a gift and a resource of inestimable value.

3. Searching Special Collections and Archives

While WorldCat has tens of thousands of entries for archival material of all kinds, it still misses much of the older guitar music that exists only in special collections and archives.  GFA member Robert Coldwell has  been working to devise cross-platform search engines (a) specifically for the 5000+ digitized public domain scores that are available online , and (b) more generally for some 12,000+ cataloged scores, the majority of which are not yet digitized.

The latter are held in collections around the globe that are included in Mr Coldwell's Digital Guitar Archive site, through an Archive Search form. As of January 2010, his search engine was able to simultaneously query all the following online specialty catalogs and databases at once:

One of the special collections near Los Angeles not yet fully cataloged online but very important is the International Guitar Research Archive (IGRA), at California State University at Northridge. One should consult the online checklists that are now available of the music score holdings, as well as view the database of scores that are mounted in low-resolution, but still legible, facsimiles -- the Easley Collection of scores.

4. Privately Created Web Sites for Guitar Music Scores

Publishers' Sites (fee-based)

Fondazione Araniti Editions describes itself as"the first e-book publisher of guitar music in the world." Its catalog includes complete works of Molitor, Kuffner, and Carcassi available in various electronic formats.  Other composers' scores are also represented. Purchase them via PayPal.

Hebe Online is a spinoff of Tecla Editions.  It offers some free scores online, like studies by Sor, Giuliani, and Carcassi, and some early English romantic songs to the guitar. Full access to the Hebe scores was formerly by annual subscription, but lately has evolved into PayPal transactions online. 

Virtual Sheet Music currently offers a few dozen selections of popular guitar solos & chamber music for a small fee (around $4-10 per item,  but at reduced cost or free for members who pay $3/month).

In contrast to the institutional and fee-based commercial sites listed above, there are many sites on the Internet created by individuals who wish to share either their own compositions or their favorite repertoire (presumably already in the public domain) online, in a kind of peer-to-peer score-sharing arrangement. No one can vouch for the reliability of the self-published editions at these sites, but often they can be helpful starting points for those seeking copies of scores that are not to be found in the music trade or in the special collections mentioned earlier.

Peer-to-peer Sites (free)

Free Guitar Scores, by guitar teacher Sot Andre, is a site where guitar scores, scanned from unidentified earlier editions believed to be in the public domain, are made freely available as PDF files. The owner has occasionally added or changed fingerings.  Composers include Albeniz, Carcassi, Carulli, Coste, Diabelli, Dowland, Giuliani, Llobet, Sanz, Sor, Tarrega, etc.

Sor complete works (Homa Dream site, Japan). Jun Sugawara, editor of Guitardream and former editor of Gendai Guitar, passed away in Tokyo on Dec. 30, 2009. One of his last major projects was to engrave the complete works of Sor - these (free) PDF files are modern editions with notes in Japanese. [Thanks to the Savannah Classical Guitar site for this information.]

Jean-François Delcamp , a classical guitarist/editor/teacher based in France, has created a site with numerous links to digitized scores of vihuela and guitar composers' works online, and free to download.  Many of his sources are copies of the well-known collections of Sweden (Boije) and Denmark (Rischel - Birket Smith), but others are less well known. For example, he offers PDFs of the complete works of Julian Arcas , but minus the title pages or editor information. These and much more are echoed (replicated? mirrored?) at another peer-to-peer sit, Creative Guitar. 

Guitar music from Argentina and Uruguay is now available to view and download from a Spanish-language newspaper blog site. Works by Ramon AYALA, Roberto CALVO, Chaco TIRAO, and others.

Visitors are invited to send suggestions for additions and corrections to Thomas F. Heck.