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 much more precise 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 the score you desire, you may be able to borrow it from a nearby library. At least you'll be able to identify one or more the 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 whey 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 vaue.

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 a common gateway interface that will allow guitar researchers to survey the holdings of the most important special collections and archives of older guitar music that are susceptible to this kind of online querying.  It turns out that there are quite a few.

Mr Coldwell writes at his Digital Guitar Archive site, "An incredibly useful tool on this site is the Archive Search. There are over 5000 digital files linked within over 12,000 entries in the database. Thumbnails are provided for each page of the linked digital files totaling over 35,000 images. The Archive Search will be a tool for research and discovery as new databases are always being prepared." As of July 2008, his search engine was able to simultaneously query all the following online specialty catalogs and databases:

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.

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