Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

When are you going to have more of your music available for free download and for purchase?

• I am adding music to the website, as time permits.  I have a lot of music that I’ve never made public, and I also have a lot of music sketched or planned for the future.  Feel free to subscribe or check the “News” page for updates.  Let me know if you have needs for a specific song of mine.

What is allowed and not allowed with the downloadable music?

• Copying or scanning the music is prohibited.

• Posting the music on a website is prohibited, although linking to my webpages is encouraged.

• Downloading the music from this website is allowed, and then printing the music from the downloaded file is allowed for up to three months after downloading it.  After that time, the file would need to be downloaded again to have license to print it again. See the response to the next question for an explanation about this.  Please be aware that some of the PDF files are restricted to print at a lower resolution of 150 DPI. The lower resolution output is still adequate for being able to read the music.

• Printing multiple copies, as needed for your use, is allowed; but for large groups such as choirs, it is frequently more cost-effective and time-effective to purchase pre-printed high-resolution copies from the website.  These are convenient booklets priced competitively to what it would cost to print free copies yourself.

• Performing this music for non-profit family, church, school, or community events is allowed.

• Modifying or arranging the music (melody, lyrics, rhythm, or harmony) in any way is not allowed.

• Creating a derivative work using any portion of the copyrighted material is not allowed.

• Using this music commercially is not allowed without prior agreement with the copyright holder.  Commercial use includes selling the music or selling recordings of the music. A mechanical fee (royalty) would normally apply to such use and would need to be arranged through a mechanical license.

• If there are any questions not answered above, please contact me.

Why do you allow free downloads on your website but do not allow people to make copies once printed?

• There are a few reasons for that somewhat-odd policy.  Primarily, this allows me to control the policy from the website, reserving me the right to change the policy later, if needed.  I may need to reduce the number of songs that are available for free if I need more income or if there is reason to give control to a publisher.  Also, I’ve been known to continue to make some improvements and corrections to the music, and this policy promotes the newest versions of the music by having people get the music from the website.  Additionally, copies of copies do not look as nice as the originals.

Why do you offer your music for free download but also offer your music for purchasing?

• I want to accommodate as many situations as I can with my music.  I want people to be able to immediately see it, hear it, try it to see if it meets their needs, and use it.  It is available for free for these purposes.

• For choral music, many copies are needed, and valuable preparation and rehearsal time can be wasted going through the process of printing, collating, folding, and handling the music.  Additionally, loose 8.5x11 sheets are not always convenient to utilize (unless punched and placed into a notebook), and printing the music on both sides of a page is not always easy. Alternatively, taking the PDF file to print at even a discount print shop is not cheap.  It can cost $.11 or more per page for the least-expensive paper, which is not ideal for music, or $.13 or more per page for 24#/60# paper, so an 8-page song would cost $1.04 or more per copy to print.  Places like Fed-ex Office (formerly Kinko’s) are much more costly.  I try to reduce my costs to be able to offer pre-printed music competitive to that – which makes my prices in general from 40% to 80% less than the price of most retail sheet music.  Many do not realize, also, that printing at home is surprisingly expensive, too.  It can cost from 6 to 14 cents per page to print at home, depending on the type of printer, ink, and paper used.

• For piano and ensemble music, I plan to have nicely-bound collections available for those who like enough of the music to want to have a more-convenient way to organize it and play it.

• A final comment on this: in some appropriate instances, I am obtaining permission to include beautiful artwork on my music.  Since printing these images can easily use more than 10-times the ink compared to all of the music pages, I will usually not include the artwork on the downloadable files (to save self-printing costs), but will include it on the music for sale.

Is there a way to donate to help with all the costs and to help further your music?

• Currently, the best way that you can help is to spread the word and to consider purchasing any audio of my songs I have.  Purchasing the sheet music (in reasonable quantities) is helpful, too, although it does take more of my time than the audio purchases.

Do you do special requests, like providing copies of your music that are transposed or scored for different instruments?

• Maybe.  It depends on how busy I am and whether I think the requested changes would negatively affect the music.  Drop me an e-mail if you have special requests.

Are you available for presentations or for providing background stories and information about the songs or the creative process?

• My availability is quite limited.  I always like to hear about anyone rehearsing or performing my music, and occasionally I may be able to attend and talk about the song(s).  I have also done some 1- or 2- hour presentations that groups have said they found very interesting.

Technical Questions

What is required to be able to print the free downloadable music?

• The music is in Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF).  Almost all personal computers have software that can open and print PDF files.  If needed, the Adobe Reader can be downloaded for free at www.adobe.com.

• After downloading the music PDF file, open the file (which should start the Adobe Reader program) and then print the file either by pressing Ctrl-P or by selecting the Print option from the File>Print pull-down menu.  A dialog should display. Ensure that any “Fit to Page” or “Page Scaling” options are set to “None” or disabled, otherwise Adobe Reader tends to unnecessarily shrink the music.

I’m having issues trying to download music.  Any suggestions?

• Some browsers seem to work better than others.  The Chrome browser is what I test the most and it usually works best.  If possible, try that browser. Please let me know if you are having consistent issues.

Is a PayPal account needed to purchase music?

• No, the website utilizes PayPal as the way to accept payments, but credit card payments are accepted even if the user does not have a PayPal account.  To order, do the following and you should be able to make the purchase without a PayPal account.

  • Select the desired quantity

  • Click on the “Add to Cart” button

  • If additional songs are desired, go to the desired song page and repeat the above steps.  The “View Cart” button can show what is in the shopping cart.

  • Click “Check Out”, then click “Pay with a debit card or credit card” (on the right side towards the bottom)