Frequently Asked Questions

Last Updated: April 11, 2010

General questions

About the tunes

General questions

What is flutetunes.com?

Basically, this site publishes free sheet music for the flute. We also provide fingering charts, scales, an online metronome, a music glossary and general information that a flutist may find useful. And all this for free.

Do you really mean for free?

Yes, all of our services are free!

The site is not sponsored by, or affiliated with, any institution or company. The only source of income of this site is constituted by the few ads we have put on it. This is actually a necessity, since we have to pay our hosting fees each month.

We currently do not accept donations. If you sincerely want to help the project, the best way is by spreading the word. Telling your flute fellows about the site, or writing about it on your blog are the best ways to support the site. The more followers we have, the more we are motivated to keep up with our mission.

Why is flutetunes.com better than other sheet music websites?

We can think of many reasons.

  • Most of the other websites are selling sheet music; we provide it for free.
  • Most of the scores one can find on the net are, simply put, horrible. We are proud of the quality of our scores.
  • Our sheet music is prepared by flute players for flute players. We make a point of respecting the capabilities of the flute, while aiming at emphasizing the melodic nature of pieces.
  • We provide free play-along tracks.

How shall I use this site?

The sheet music we provide every day is great for your practice sessions. We suggest to practice sight-reading at the end of your usual practice routine, just like a dessert at the end of the meal. You'll soon find out that this is not only beneficial to your playing, but also incredibly fun! Maybe at first it won't be so easy to read all those notes on the fly, but you can rest assured that your abilities will improve very quickly!

Is this site family safe?

Absolutely. We carefully check everything that is posted on the site. We do not accept any content that incites, advocates, or expresses obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, racism, hatred, or gratuitous violence.

Who maintains the site?

The site is currently maintained by two flutists who prefer to keep their identities secret. We are not looking for personal publicity with this site. As flutists, we prefer to be judged on our playing rather than our sheet music publications.

How did you come up with the idea for the site?

The idea first came up during late fall 2008. Our goal was (and still is) to set up a place where flutists of all levels could find every day something new to play and have fun.

Thinking of younger students and amateurs, we also decided to include fingering charts, a metronome and a searchable music glossary, to answer questions like “What does rallentando mean?”

Of course, it took some time to develop all these features, not to mention the time we spent optimizing the sheet music making process in order to be able to publish one new tune each day. Luckily enough one of us is also a consummate programmer, so the technical side didn't prove to be that huge of a problem after all.

Finally, after a week of online beta testing, flutetunes.com went public on March 31, 2009.

About the tunes

How often are new tunes published?

At present, every day we publish a new tune. In the future we may increase this rate, but in order to do so we need your help. Keep us motivated by spreading the word and sending us your feedback!

Do you only publish flute solos?

No! We provide sheet music for many instrumentations: flute duets, flute and piano, flute and guitar... You can browse our tunes by instrumentation.

Please notice that the instrumentations we suggest serve just as an indication. Obviously all of the accompaniments may be performed by a piano or similar instrument.

What do you mean by “bass instrument”?

The pieces we arrange for “flute and bass instrument” feature an accompanying bass line that can ideally be played by any instrument that can read the bass clef. This line is usually monophonic, i.e. it uses few or no chords: only one note is played at a time, just like on the flute. Examples of instruments that can play these parts include cello, piano, guitar, harp, bassoon, trombone, double bass...

Have all of the tunes originally been written for the flute?

No. We often write transcriptions of music originally written for other instruments. This is a common practice, and we think that it is a good thing as long as the original spirit of a piece can be preserved. For this reason, we rarely transpose melodies, as we believe that the key of a tune conveys much of its character.

Pieces that were actually written for flute are collected in a dedicated category.

Should I download the MIDI or the MP3? What is the difference?

First of all, you should know that both the MIDI and the MP3 versions of each track contain the exact same notes. You should choose between the two based on your specific needs, keeping in mind the following differences.

  • MIDI files are very small, just a few kilobytes, so the download is very fast. However, the quality of the music will largely depend on your computer's soundcard capabilities, and will generally be somewhat poor.
  • MP3 files are larger, but will generally sound more realistic. Moreover, you can download them to your MP3 player and take them with you wherever you go.

The bottom line: unless you are on a slow Internet connection (dial-up), go for the MP3s.

How should I use the play-along accompaniment tracks?

You may want to listen to the complete track to get a feel of how the melody interweaves with the accompaniment first. Then, when you feel ready, just play the accompaniment MIDI or MP3 file, and get ready to start playing the melody on your flute at the right moment! If the piece has no introductory part, in which the accompanying instrument plays alone, then the play-along track will start with an extra bar with the accompaniment just beating the time, so that you can get ready and at the same time understand what the tempo is.

I'm desperately looking for the sheet music for [your song title here]!

You can check if the piece you are looking for is already present in our free flute sheet music collection. If you don't find it, you can send us a request.

We love to prepare sheet music on request, so please don't hesitate!

How long does it take for a request to be posted?

It depends upon the length and complexity of the requested piece, as well as the number of requests we have in queue. For short pieces, the waiting time is usually less than a week. Whenever possible, we always try to reply to all messages, including requests, within 24 hours.