Back in the 19th century, songs in the United States were popularized by musicians through sheet music. It was only in the 1950s when musicians started to bring sheet music to bands so they could play, allowing more people to hear their compositions.

Simply, sheet music is a musical composition in printed form. It is composed of unbound sheets of paper where a musical notation of a song is printed. Many associate it with popular music. However, musicians say popular songs are not the only ones written down on paper. Many classical songs were published in sheet music and classical musicians performed even unfamiliar songs with these printed compositions.

There are various forms of sheet music. Songs that are to be played only in one musical instrument (such as a piano or a guitar) are published in only one piece of sheet music. When a song is to be performed by several musicians, each musician has his own sheet music with his part printed on it. This kind of sheet music is referred to as a part.

When a musical piece is intended to be played by a big group of people using different instruments, a score is used. This type of sheet music shows everything to be played in one place.

A score has also different kinds: full score, miniature score, study score, piano score, vocal score and short score. All these differ in their length and content.

Full score is a book that has all the music of the different instruments printed on its pages. A miniature score is its smaller version. Study score is smaller than the full score but bigger than the miniature score. It often adds informative notes about the piece.

A piano score is used by a pianist but it lets you know which part of the piece is played in other instruments. Vocal score on the other hand are used by singers. However, they may also have cues and notes like the piano score.

As composers finalize their music, they place it in a short score. In this kind of score, each music of a particular instrument is shown in lesser staves.