VSM: Is It Better Than Traditional Scores?

See how Robert Estrin uses VSM!

In this video, Robert talks about Virtual Sheet Music and why he uses it daily for his music endeavors! NOTE: This video is not sponsored. Robert made and shared it completely on his own!

Released on June 18, 2025

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DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Virtual Sheet Music and its employees.

Video Transcription

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, Robert Estrin. Today I'm talking about the music I read all the time. You see it on my iPad. And what am I using primarily? Virtual sheet music. They are the originators, going back to the 1990s, the first company to offer a viable alternative to printed music. And then it is a great program, but I've got such amazing news for you today because they've revamped the entire program and I'm going to go through with you and show you some of the incredible enhancements. Take a look at this.

So, aside from having a huge library with beautiful printed music, everything easy to find, but it goes further.

Anything you find, you can play the music, you can listen to so many of the titles and be able to hear what it's like. There are some videos, there's all sorts of resources, different amounts of resources for different compositions. You can adjust the speed of playback.

You can loop a certain section if you want to hear it again and again. Maybe you're trying to imitate it or to be able to really study it. It's really remarkable the flexibility that this offers you as a learning tool.

Now this is just scratching the surface. There's so much you can do with this program. It's pretty remarkable.

First of all, you've got great resources. My videos are on there for one thing, as well as violinists and flutists and all sorts of instruments with great tutorials. Look how easy it is to search. Now this is Flight of the Bumblebee. Look at how many different arrangements there are. Now here's the new addition. Watch what you can do with this.

Piccolo and tuba? Are you kidding me? The flexibility is just unbelievable, but you haven't seen anything yet.

You take your music, figure out what you want to go to. Now here's famous Ode to Joy of Beethoven, but this is just the beginning.

You can make your own arrangements whatever instruments you want. Check this out. It's as simple as click and boom, instrument arrangement. Want to transpose it? Another click and you'll put it into any key you want. And you can even change things on the fly. You want to customize your arrangements? Done. You don't have to learn a whole music notation program. And you can export it, you can save it and print it out. It's unreal what you can do with this, but this goes even further. Watch this, how you can take what you have arranged in the key and the instruments and any changes you've done, and then you can change the tempo and you can play it at whatever speed, whatever key, whatever instruments. It's really remarkable. Just imagine having a music expert over your shoulder all the time you're working at music with the AI assistant. You can put almost anything in here. How to practice scales on the piano, how to work on anything and it'll give you a whole detailed regimen of what to do. Can you believe this? Look at this. It's telling you from one prompt a whole methodology because it goes to the vast resources that are on virtual sheet music and the internet at large. Look at this. You're playing a piece by Massonet. Maybe you want to know, tell me about Massonet. Tell me about this piece. What is this? Well, I happen to know it's from an opera. Let's see what it tells us. The composer of meditation from Thaïs, French composer, famous for his French opera meditation.

Boom, you got all these resources. Now you're asking what the key is. Is it going to know the key of this piece? Man, it gets that. It gets it all. This is what is so great. At your fingertips, you not only have the music, you can arrange the music. You can adjust the speed of the music. You can adjust the notes of the arrangements. If you want to tweak it to your heart's content, then you can actually listen to it. Then you want to know more, you can even ask questions and it goes in even deeper. What's this? To give you a little bit of more things that you can do with this, one of the best online metronomes I've ever found because it has the actual speeds, 72, 74, 76, and it progresses correctly.

You have this metronome that can do everything you want, but it does the basics exactly like you like.

Look at this. Once again, to kind of review, you get your piece, you make your arrangements, you have your AI assistant right over your shoulder to answer any of your questions the entire time you're working with it.

What a blessing. Imagine if you had a teacher with you all the time. How helpful would that be? Would you like an accompanist? Look at this. You choose a piece that has accompaniment and the accompaniment, you can start it, you can work on a certain section by looping it, you can change different parts of it, and then you've got music theory tutorials. You want to work on your note reading or things that are more advanced. Just look at this. This is something really simple. You just pick certain notes that you want to be able to practice. Maybe you're working on the bass clef for the first time. Now that's more advanced. This is just something simple to show you how the process works. You can do the same thing with triads. You can do the same thing with seventh chords. You can do all sorts of tutorials, music theory tutorials.

If you're interested in all of this, let me show you a little bit more. You can become a member. I've been a member for years and I just love it because the ease of use. Are there other places you can get sheet music online? Yeah, but the ease of use and the flexibility of virtual sheet music are just unparalleled. There's nothing like it. For 99 % of the music that I play, it's all free. Some of the more copywritten material that's very recent, you might have to pay, but even there you get a discount. It's really pretty incredible what you get with virtual sheet music. I love it. I've been using it for years. If you're looking for something that's simple to use, you don't have to go crazy searching. It's all right there for you. Intuitive and a bargain. Go for it. Anyway, I'm happy to bring this to you. If you have any questions, I love it because I have it right on my iPad. I can turn pages with my foot pedal so I don't have to worry about page turns. You can even set it up so it'll turn pages when you lean your head to the right or turn back if you lean your head to the left. I use the pedal. Anyway, this is just scratching the surface of the power of virtual sheet music. I recommend it for anybody who's really serious about music and you want to have all the music you love literally at your fingertips. That's what virtual sheet music is. If you have any more questions about it, I'm here for you. Robert at livingpianos.com, your online piano resource.
Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/virtual-sheet-music/
Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com
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Comments, Questions, Requests:

bromberg * REGISTERED USER * on June 20, 2025 @9:36 am PST
I'm asking this as a general question, but if Playground can help, that's fine as well.
reply
Fabrizio Ferrari - moderator, on June 20, 2025 @10:22 am PST
Ok, I see... well, if the piece is written in bass clef, and you read it as if it were written with a treble clef, you'll find yourself having problems with accidentals and other interval issues. You actually need to transpose the music in a higher key, or often just one octave higher, accordingly to the clef you are moving to. That's needed to have the correct notes and intervals between them to play the music correctly.

As I said, you can use the Playground for all VSM editions natively, or you can try to import your music as a PDF or image and let the system work to make it editable inside the Playground.

Please let me know if you need any more specific help or directions. I'll be happy to help!

All the best,
bromberg * REGISTERED USER * on June 20, 2025 @10:32 am PST
So what would you recommend that I do for the ODE TO JOY sample that Playground offers? Again, I am a guitar player, so what do you suggest I do in the Playground app to transpose this violin/piano music to a key appropriate for guitar?
Thanks!
Dan
Fabrizio Ferrari - moderator, on June 20, 2025 @10:38 am PST
You can simply do this:

1. Once you are inside the Playground, click the "Instruments" button.

2. Once there, change the violin part to guitar by clicking and selecting guitar from the "Change to..." drop-down menu. Then click DONE.


That's it! The piece will change from violin and piano to guitar and piano. But of course, that piece is very simple, and the violin part was already in treble clef.

You can do the same thing for the piano: change it to a guitar if you want to play the piano part with your guitar. Of course, the Playground at the moment doesn't actually "rearrange" the music for guitar; it just transposes it and makes it fit inside the guitar range, but there is no guarantee that the chords are all playable on the guitar.

We'll work to have a real "rearranger", but at the moment, that's the way it works.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

All the best,
bromberg * REGISTERED USER * on June 20, 2025 @11:05 am PST
I followed your suggestion and now have 2 treble clefs labeled 'guitar'. I suppose my task is to now combine them so that it is playable, but I look forward to your enhanced version of Playground with a 'rearranger' someday!
Thanks for taking the time to reply to me.
Dan
Fabrizio Ferrari - moderator, on June 20, 2025 @5:03 pm PST
Yes, that's correct Dan! That's the way it works right now. And of course, we hope to be able to implement a better arranger in the coming months.

If you have any additional feedback, please let us know! You can always submit your feedback from within the Playground through the Feedback button.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

You are always most welcome!
bromberg * REGISTERED USER * on June 18, 2025 @11:57 am PST
I'm a guitar player. Can I ignore the bass clef and just play the treble clef and still expect a (more or less) accurate transcription?
reply
Fabrizio Ferrari - moderator, on June 18, 2025 @1:51 pm PST
I am happy to answer your question Bromberg.

Could you please tell me more? Are you asking about our Playground tool?

Here it is:

https://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/playground/


Please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,
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