Great Sources of Holiday Music for Celtic Harp
Finding Free Christmas Sheet Music on the Web ~
What You Need to Know First
There are two kinds of legally available free sheet music on the Web:
~ tunes in the public domain
~ original arrangements or compositions posted generously by the arranger or composer
Traditional Christmas tunes are usually in the public domain. All music in the public domain can be used, arranged, publicly performed, recorded, broadcast, and republished without penalty.
However, when you find a copyrighted arrangement of a traditional tune, or an original composition (including many secular Christmas favorites) on the internet, you must ask permission before doing any of these things. Please respect the copyright, as your doing so makes it safe for composers to share the sheet music with the Web audience. If you want to arrange or record a copyrighted piece, composers are usually happy to grant permission, and if there is any fee, it will generally be very little.
Finding Free Christmas Sheet Music on the Web ~
Where to Look
Just as with classical piano music, there is a very large amount of free Christmas sheet music on the Web. Once again, you must look out for blurry copies, badly organized sites, hidden costs or deceptive links, and music that is illegal. Any copies of music like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, except that offered for sale through a legal outlet, is bound to be pirated, so beware.
Finding free Christmas sheet music that is actually playable on the Celtic harp can present added difficulties, but there are a few outstanding sites with a variety of lovely piano arrangements of favorite carols.
Here are the best of them:
Noel, Noel, Noel, offers most Christmas carols, all beautifully produced on clear, readable notation with lovely illustrations. The easy piano arrangements are very adaptable for Celtic harp, and the lead-sheet style selections lend themselves beautifully to creating your own arrangements. The site also offers Christmas midi files and some scores of multi-instrument arrangements of Christmas carols.
Noel, Noel, Noel
Gilbert Benedetti, offers a large array of classical, folk, and Christmas favorites in lovely, simple arrangements easily playable on Celtic harp. The selections are categorized by level, which makes it easy to find a level that suits your skill and download the apporpriate pieces. The music also includes fun illustrations that especially appeal to children. Piano fingerings will have to be ignored, though.
Gilbert Benedetti’s Free Sheet Music site
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