Sheet music is the written representation of how a particular song or piece of music is to be played. One can think of it as a set of instructions, the way a recipe serves as a set of instructions on how to prepare a particular dish. Unless a musician is playing a piece by ear, he or she will use sheet music as a reference. The concept of sheet music is applicable to every kind of instrument and musical style, from violins to bagpipes, from opera to movie scores. The two instruments for which the most amount of sheet music is produced are the piano and the guitar. Some guitar sheet music may be called "guitar tabs."
The term guitar tabs refers to sheet music for the guitar written in tablature form rather than with standard staff notation. Sheet music can be purchased in collections that contain a number of different songs or pieces by a particular artist, or that represent a particular style of music. Sheet music for individual songs may also be purchased separately.
Piano sheet music for current popular music is widely available, including sheet music for the biggest hits by the biggest contemporary stars. Whether you're looking for country, jazz, rock, pop, Latin, film scores, or virtually any type of music, you can find available sheet music. Equally intriguing to music aficionados is the fact that used and vintage sheet music for songs popular in an earlier era can also be found. The existence of sheet music for folk songs, classical music, religious songs, hits from the World War II era, and many more types of older music make sheet music a form of living musical history.