Sheet Music

Instructions

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Our goal in transcribing sheet music text is keyword search for lyrics, subjects, and creators and publishers. Musical notation, performance instructions, and other markings are currently out of scope.

See the illustrated and downloadable Transcribing Sheet Music PDF for more help and examples.

Sheet music DO's

  • Transcribe titles, lyrics, tempo markings (Moderato, allegro, allegretto, etc.), publication information, and ads.
  • Transcribe text in the order it appears on the page (this may differ from performance order). 
  • Preserve line breaks. If a word is broken across a line or page, transcribe it intact on the line where it initially appears.
  • Do transcribe the text of illustrated title pages.
  • Do transcribe handwritten notes and Library of Congress cataloging stamps as marginalia.

Sheet music DON'Ts

  • Don’t transcribe musical notation - including time and key signatures or dynamic markings (f, p, cresc., dim., <, >, etc.)
  • Don't transcribe hyphens (or melisma) within lyrics (even if broken across pages).