A curated list of awesome tools to create, edit and display sheet music.
Tip
Sponsored by:
Airsequel Sheet Music - Open source sheet music management app.
🌐 sheet-music.airsequel.app
🖥️ github.com/Airsequel/Airsequel-Sheet-Music
Table Of Contents
- Music Notation Software
- Archives
- Software Libraries
- Websites
- Apps
- Notations
- Hardware
- Resources
- OMR (Optical Music Recognition)
- Research
- capella (commercial) - Create complete scores.
- dorico (commercial) - Desktop notation software created largely by former developers of the competing product Sibelius.
- finale (commercial) - Compose, arrange, notate and print engraver-quality sheet music.
- Gsharp - Interactive extensible score editor.
- LilyPond - Program and file format for music engraving.
- MagicScore (commercial) - Music notation software for composing and editing sheet music.
- mei-friend - Browser-based editor for music encodings.
- MuseScore - Create, play and print sheet music.
- opusmodus (commercial) - Software for music composition.
- sibelius (commercial) - Create and share scores.
- Unison (commercial) - Create sheet music by describing it with simple words.
- Bach digital - Platform to browse through original sources of J. S. Bach and his sons.
- Bayanguru - Sheet music for Bayan (accordion).
- CMME - Computerized mensural music editing and database of scores.
- CPDL - The Choral Public Domain Library, an archive focused on choral and vocal music.
- Digital Mozart Edition - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's works in digital formats.
- flutetunes.com - Free sheet music for the flute.
- IMSLP - The International Music Score Library Project to share the world’s public domain music.
- Kern Scores - Library of musical scores in the Humdrum **kern data format.
- Lilypond-Sheet-Music - Cello music typeset with LilyPond.
- MuseScore - Share your sheet music and comment on others.
- mutopia - Sheet music editions of classical music for free. Repository available on GitHub.
- NinSheetMusic - Community archive of free video game sheet music.
- openbook - Open LilyPond real book for jazz musicians.
- abcjs - JavaScript library for rendering and playing back ABC music notation in the browser.
- alda - Music programming language for musicians.
- alphatab - Cross platform music notation and guitar tablature rendering library.
- ChorData - Dummy chordbook for mandolin, ukulele and guitar.
- chord-mark - Reference implementation of the ChordMark notation.
- chordpro - Reference implementation of the ChordPro standard.
- ChordSketch - Rust implementation of the ChordPro format with parser, renderers (text, HTML, PDF, SVG), CLI, and iReal Pro support.
- conchord - Typst package to write lyrics with chords, generate chord diagrams and draw tabs.
- Digital Music Stand - A simple browser-based viewer to display and search music sheets.
- EMViz - Visualize melodic patterns in MIDI files with arc diagrams.
- hmsl - Hierarchical Music Specification Language. Forth tools for experimental music from the 1980's
- Hum - Music notation language and synthesizer.
- LilyBin - Self-hostable web-powered LilyPond editor.
- lilynode - Node.js wrapper for LilyPond.
- lilyware - Node.js middleware for serving rendered LilyPond files.
- ly2video - Generating videos from LilyPond projects.
- Melo - Music notation language and compiler to MIDI.
- mscxyz - Manipulate MuseScore's XML based mscx files.
- Music Sheet Viewer - Wordpress plugin to embed sheet music with shortcode tags.
- music21 - Toolkit for computational musicology.
- openLilyLib - Enhancement library for LilyPond.
- OpenSheetMusicDisplay - TypeScript library for rendering MusicXML in the browser.
- ScoreAnalyzer - Analyze piano sheet music for technical difficulties.
- scoryst - Typst package to render music notation (ABC, MusicXML, MEI, Humdrum, …) via verovio.
- SheetAble - Self-hostable server for organizing sheet music.
- Smude - A library dedicated to binarization and dewarping of sheet music images.
- verovio - An library and toolkit for engraving MEI music notation into SVG.
- VexFlow - TypeScript library for rendering music notation & guitar tablature.
- zazate.js - Music theory and notation library for javascript and node.js.
- SeePlay - Webapp to teach sight reading of sheet music.
- AnthemScore - Automatically create sheet music from audio.
- Piano Transcription - Transcribe piano recordings to MIDI files.
- PianoTrans - GUI for piano transcription with pedals.
- Sheet Sage - Transcribe pop songs to lead sheets (melody + chords).
- Airsequel Sheet Music - Sheet music management app powered by Airsequel.
- ChordMark - Simple text format for the notation of lyrics, chords and rhythm.
- ChordPro - Simple text format for the notation of lyrics with chords.
- Clairnote - Alternative music notation to ease reading and understanding.
- flat.io (commercial) - The online music score editor for your compositions.
- flowkey (commercial) - Interactive app to learn how to play the piano.
- Fretboard 1 - Chords, scales, and fingerings for string instruments.
- Fretboard 2 - Chord diagrams for Guitar.
- Fret Monster - Fingering charts app for Guitar, Ukulele, Bass, and Mandolin.
- Guitar Dashboard - An interactive music theory dashboard for guitarists.
- hacklily - Online LilyPond based sheet music editor.
- JotChord - Text-based online editor for making Nashville Number System style song charts as PDFs.
- La Partition Numerique - French speaking site dedicated to the future of musical scores.
- MandoScribe (commercial) - Create slash chords + tabs sheet music in browser for Mandolin.
- microharmonic - Microtone keyboard. and chord diagrams without the need for special tools.
- Newzik - Collaborative sheet music management app and reader for web, iPadOS, and macOS.
- noteflight (commercial) - Browser based music notation creator and music composition community.
- PianoGym - Piano sight reading exercises and flash cards.
- PianoHub - Create and share music in your browser.
- PianoML - A Machine to Learn Piano.
- Pianu - Learn how to play the piano with interactive lessons.
- playgroundsessions (commercial) - Learn how to play the piano with interactive lessons featuring your favorite songs.
- react-piano - Interactive piano keyboard for React.
- Soundslice (commercial) - Browse and create sheet music/tab synced with audio/video performances.
- synthesiagame (commercial) - Learn how to play the piano using falling notes.
- TimeWarp Technologies - Interactive software for performing musicians, music educators, students, and music hobbyists.
- Tunefl - Freely generate and share mini LilyPond scores with ease.
- Composer's Sketchpad - Sequencer that combines musical staff paper with an artist's sketchbook (iOS only).
- Enote - Digital sheet music app with large library (iPadOS, iOS).
- Fender Notion - Cross-platform music composition tool.
- Nkoda - Find, organize, and annotate sheet music.
- PianoBooster - MIDI file player displaying musical notes and teaching how to play the piano.
- SheetScroll (commercial) - Sheet music reader that turns the page by listening (web, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux).
- StaffPad - Music composition app, designed for pen and touch.
- StageMate (commercial) - PDF/image sheet music reader with annotations, setlists, and blink/head gesture page turns (iPhone, iPad, Android).
- Dodeka Music Notation - A simple yet powerful alternative music notation.
- Integer Pitch Class Notation - System that names the twelve pitch classes with the integ 7255 ers 0 through 11.
- Karya - Music sequencer and generalized notation.
- Numbered Musical Notation - Cipher notation system that uses the digits 1 through 7 to represent the notes of the scale (also known as Jianpu).
- Piano-LED-Visualizer - Enhanced piano playing with a Raspberry Pi powered LED strip.
- freemusiced - Fingering charts, scale sheets, free sheet music and links to resources on the internet.
- List of Online Digital Musical Document Libraries - Wikipedia list of online archives.
- llllllll.co/… - Discussion about experimental music notation resources.
- MEI - Music Encoding Initiative. Community-driven, open-source effort to define a system for encoding musical documents.
- MNX - XML based next generation music markup proposal.
- Musiconn - Information platform for research on music and musicology.
- Notation Must Die - Video essay on the battle for how we read music.
- SMuFL - Standard Music Font Layout.
- W3C Music Notation Community Group - Standards group developing MusicXML, SMuFL and MNX-Common formats.
- Audiveris - Optical music recognition app for scanned scores.
- Gamera - Toolkit for building document image recognition systems.
- PlayScore – Sheet Music Scanning App (iOS, Android, Windows).
- Rodan - Web-based document recognition system.
- Scan2Notes (commercial) - AI powered web app to scan sheet music and convert it to editable, playable scores (PDF, MIDI, MusicXML).
- Distributed digital music archives and libraries lab - Development and evaluation of practices, frameworks and tools for the design and construction of worldwide distributed digital music archives and libraries.
- MusicScoring - Automatically generate scores for difficult pieces of music.
- Notation and Thought - Notation design and how it affects thought.
- OMR Research - Research hub for Optical Music Recognition.