(In case you can’t tell, I’m not a musical person)
Okay, so there’s a song I like singing along to. The problem is that I’m not really very good at hearing the right places where my voice should go up and down, and how much it should go up and down on each note.
So I want to get the music for it, so that I can sing along to it and not sound like a cat randomly yowling. You know, the bit with the lines across the page and the notes dancing across it.
What do I look for? I’m hoping to find it online, because it’s a fairly obscure song so I don’t think I would find it in a songbook or compilation.
Is it the sheet music I’m looking for? The score? The melody? The…what? What is the word for the lines and notes? Lots of lyrics sites have something called “tabs” but it looks like those are for guitar. I don’t need the lyrics, I have those, I just want to be able to sing along better.
Well, it may be available as part of some collection, or it might just be out of print - if you can tell us what it is and who recorded it, we might still be able to track something down for you…
I have a feeling that you might have a PM answering your question due to the above post. But what you want, ideally, is something called a “lead sheet”. This is a simplified form of sheet music that only contains a single staff with the melody, and chord symbols that give an indication of the harmony. As to where you would find “White Dress”, I have no idea, but at least you will know what to ask for.