Frequently Asked Questions

What can I do if I can't open a PDF file?
Make sure you have the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader by downloading it free of charge from Adobe Systems. Follow the instructions for installation, then go to our free samples page and try to download one of those files.


I clicked on the button to download my purchased file, but my browser didn't ask me about saving the file; it just displayed a lot of random characters on the screen. What should I do?
Sometimes a browser will not recognize the PDF format download the first time you try this, so try it a second time. Odds are it will work the second time, but if the problem persists, send an email to sales@sheetmusicbackinprint.com and we will email your purchases to you.


The printed score looks smaller than the score as viewed on my system monitor. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
Adobe Acrobat has a number of options that control how a PDF file is printed. On many systems, the default Page Scaling option is to reduce the size of the page when printing in order to avoid printing in the unprintable margins of the printer. As our editions are formatted well within any reasonable printer margins, this scaling is usually unnecessary. Try changing the Page Scaling option to None; this should produce a full size printout.


I love the art work on some of these covers. Do you have higher resolution scans available?
Where possible, we have placed moderate resolution (usually 500 pixels wide) images of the covers on the web site so that you can inspect them more closely than via our standard cover icons. As you can see, some of this music is in wretched condition when we rescue it from the stacks of decaying music we find in antique stores. And we do not always obtain a copy with a cover; some selections come from bound collections and never included a cover. In the future, we may offer higher resolution images but at present we are concentrating on preparing new editions of the music itself.


I'm confused by the way repeats are indicated in many of the popular songs in your catalog. How are these songs supposed to be played?
Many of the popular songs of this era featured a chorus that was indicated with repeat bars, but also included two verses for the introduction. Our interpretation is that the song was to be performed once for the first verse, with a repeat of the chorus, and then performed in its entirety again for the second verse (also with a repeat of the chorus). Often the chorus is marked p-f, indicating that the first time through is to be soft and the second time loud. Some songs will mark with a segno symbol where in the introduction the second verse is to start; others simply imply a repeat from the beginning.


What does the skill level mean for a song? Does it apply to the vocal part(s) or to the accompaniment?
We have based our skill level assessments solely on the piano accompaniment. This does not imply that there is not a corresponding skill level for the vocal parts (for some art songs, the required skill is considerable) but we do not currently have a means to represent that separately.

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