Sheet music is the printed or written form of a musical composition, showing the notes and other notation that performers read. It may be a simple lead sheet with melody and chord symbols or a fully notated score with every detail specified.

For centuries sheet music was the primary way music traveled from composer to performer and from place to place. Publishing houses printed songs, piano pieces, and larger works that amateurs and professionals bought and played at home or in public. Today digital files and apps supplement paper, yet the concept remains the same.

Reading sheet music fluently allows musicians to learn new pieces efficiently and to perform music they have never heard. It also preserves compositions that might otherwise be lost. The visual layout of sheet music—spacing, page turns, clarity of symbols—affects how easily the music can be realized in performance.

• Printed or written music for performance
• Ranges from lead sheets to full scores
• Enables learning and preservation of music
• Exists in paper and digital forms