This is my private little collection of scanned piano music. Some of this dates from the days when I used to bring my Nikon CoolPix into the Lincoln Center library and (with permission) digitize rare manuscripts. In fact, since they would not allow xeroxing (old scores were too fragile) they encouraged me to use a camera on a tripod. These days when I learn a piece, my habit is to scan a digital copy first. That way I can produce a score to work from conveniently, have the online copy to refer to when travelling, can consult with distant friends, etc. Since I have little time to practice, and since this archive expands according to the music I study and perform, it grows slowly.

Listing is by composer (arranger) and title of work.

Most scores are in HTML, pdf, and 2-up (landscape) pdf. Most of the scans are 200dpi 8-bit grayscale JPG (q=1). Page images were taken either from a digital camera (on a small tripod), or from a flatbed scanner (e.g., CanoScan), then filtered through Photoshop (where they are cropped, straightened, contrast-adjusted, etc). A shell script generates the html and pdf files. The HTML files are made from images that are sized to be 11" high, and should print one per page from Explorer (you will probably need to turn off headers and footers and fiddle with margin settings; better to print from PDF, obviously).

For practicing, I print the 2-up layout full bleed and double sided on heavy paper (I like Lumijet matte paper, which is bright white, and have used printers like the Canon S820 or Epson 1280). This way you only need to carry around a few sheets; you can see six oe eight pages at a glance (and practice without ever having to mess with page turns); and since the music is just big enough to read, you can use it at the piano, but it's small enough to force you to memorize more quickly. I make my annotations with red and sometimes blue pencil, and have a metronome the size of a credit card. It's a convenient package.

If you have improvements, questions, or want to trade scores, send a "note."

Mike Hawley