Title: Sheet Music Libary
Author: Nick Halsey
Published: <strong>August 16, 2015</strong>
Last modified: July 13, 2024

---

Search plugins

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://ps.w.org/sheet-music-library/assets/icon.svg?rev=1222148)

# Sheet Music Libary

 By [Nick Halsey](https://profiles.wordpress.org/celloexpressions/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/sheet-music-library.2.0.1.zip)

 * [Details](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/sheet-music-library/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/sheet-music-library/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/sheet-music-library/#installation)
 * [Development](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/sheet-music-library/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/)

## Description

The sheet music library plugin is a framework that leverages WordPress to post sheet
music online in a structured way. Using a sheet music custom post type and taxonomies
for composers, genres, difficulties, and orchestrations, you can upload, organize,
and share sheet music in a native-feeling interface. In addition to the taxonomies,
each “piece” object includes PDF-based score and parts upload (with automatically-
generated preview images), and audio upload and/or Youtube/Vimeo embeds to showcase
recordings. The native WordPress block editor facilitates additional information,
be it a sentence explaining the arrangement or a multi-paragraph essay describing
a work complete with multimedia content.

On the front-end, this plugin provides default styling and filtering to display 
sheet music content in a way that is compatible with most themes. Customizations
ranging from visual tweaks with CSS to custom themes that implement the `sheet_music`
post type directly with custom templates allow for infinite possibilities. Blocks
are also available so that you can optionally build custom layouts with the site
editor and block themes.

Whether you’re a composer/arranger publishing your works online, a community or 
school orchestra sharing music with your members, or work with music in any other
way, the Sheet Music Library plugin provides an easy, flexible way to manage and
share your content.

Note that this plugin was designed with classical music in mind in particular, but
it can be used in much broader contexts. It was built for the [Cello Expressions Sheet Music Library](https://celloexpressions.com/music/),
which provides a good example of what it can do and how it can look on the front
end. The backend UI is just as much of a reason to try this plugin, with its seamless
integration with WordPress core features.

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * Table view display with the Twenty Fifteen theme (as of version 1.1, this includes
   audio players as well).
 * [[
 * Archive (search, taxonomy, author, date, etc.) view with the Twenty Fifteen theme.
 * [[
 * Single piece view with the Twenty Fifteen theme.
 * [[
 * Taxonomy administration for sheet music posts (classic editor).
 * [[
 * Custom field administration for sheet music posts (block editor).
 * [[
 * Automatic, contextual sheet music audio playlist widget on a taxonomy page (showing
   an “orchestration” term).

## Blocks

This plugin provides 5 blocks.

 *   Sheet Music Audio/Video Displays piece audio and/or video for a single sheet
   music post.
 *   Sheet Music Score Preview Displays sheet music score preview image, linked 
   to score, unless direct download is not available for a single sheet music post.
 *   Sheet Music Download Box Displays sheet music file download buttons (score 
   and parts) or direct download not available markup for a single sheet music post.
 *   Sheet Music Search Form Displays a search form that provides results from pieces
   in the sheet_music post type only.
 *   Sheet Music Excerpt Button Link Displays link to view or view and download 
   a single sheet music piece.

## Installation

 1. Take the easy route and install through the WordPress plugin installer OR
 2. Download the .zip file and upload the unzipped folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/`
    directory
 3. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
 4. The “Sheet Music” post type is now available and can be used to add content. Plan
    on taking some time to either look at some different themes to find one that works
    well with the default styling, add some custom CSS to clean up the styling, or 
    build a fully custom theme with custom templates for the sheet music post type.
    The plugin also includes all of the blocks necessary to create sheet music post
    templates in the site editor, if you prefer to start from scratch.
 5. Install the Front Page Custom Post Type plugin to show sheet music posts on your
    front page: https://wordpress.org/plugins/front-page-custom-post-type/. Or, add
    a link to the “Sheet Music” post type archive to your menu via the customizer.
 6. The [all_sheet_music] and [latest_sheet_music] shortcodes can be used to add a 
    table-style summary of all music on the site, and you can use the standard WordPress
    archive/taxonomy views to present music as well.
 7. Add the “Sheet Music Library Playlist” widget to your sidebar to facilitate audio-
    based music discovery on your site.

## FAQ

### Block Editor Support

Sheet Music Library 2.0 adds support for the block editor. Support for blocks within
sheet music posts’ content is stable. Most other block related features — sheet 
music library template blocks — are intended for use in block-based theme templates
or in custom views with query blocks. The built-in block patterns provide a good
start for typical use cases, such as a query loop to feature pieces in a particular
taxonomy.

### Site Editor Support

Sheet Music Library 2.0+ includes blocks and patterns that enable you to create 
a fully customized theme that supports the Sheet Music Library plugin within the
block-based site editor. This is a beta interface, and includes the rough edges 
that come with the current state of block themes. If you build sheet music single
and archive templates in the block editor, you need to declare theme support for`
sheet_music_library` to disable the `the_content` filter-based templating that the
plugin provides for compatibility with classic themes. There is a UI option in the
customizer (which allows you to live-preview the impact of changing this option),
so that this is possible without digging into the code. Distributed themes that 
integrate with this plugin are encourage to include this flag by default.

### Problems with PDF Preview Images

This plugin has a handy feature that generates images from PDF files that are uploaded.
However, it requires a server-side image processing feature called Imagick (or ImageMagick).
If image previews of PDFs aren’t working, this feature is likely missing. Contact
your host to see whether it can be enabled. In some cases, your best option may 
even be to switch to a host that supports this feature, if image previews of PDFs
are a must-have feature.

Note that WordPress core added a similar feature for all PDF uploads, inspired by
this plugin, in version 4.7. The core feature will show PDF thumbnails in the media
library for files uploaded after 4.7 was installed. This plugin maintains a separate
version of the PDF image, but may utilize the core feature in the future.

### E-Commerce Integration

Out of the box, the Sheet Music Library doesn’t include E-Commerce functionalities,
as it was built for a free sheet music library. However, this functionality could
be added on to the plugin with either an add-on plugin or by restricting access 
to the actual PDF file downloads or by using custom front-end handling with a custom
theme or child theme.

### Shortcodes

To display all sheet music in a table view, write the following on its own line 
in a post/page content area: `[all_sheet_music]`. If you have a lot of sheet music,
you could also use `[latest_sheet_music number="10"]` and specify the number of 
pieces to display. If you want to get a playlist of the audio files associated with
sheet music, use `[sheet_music_audio_playlist]`. This shortcode also supports a 
genre argument – give it the slug (URL extension) for the genre you want to display:`[
sheet_music_audio_playlist genre="classical"]`. Generally speaking, it is better
to use post type archives and taxonomy views where possible (see the installation
instructions for details). In version 2.0 and newer, you can also use Query Loop
blocks (with sheet music library post template patterns) to achieve a similar result(
minus the table view).

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6e15922470d57e964ecd0e4b1ae1a6a979d53929739982b91100255a28a4b94d?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great plugin!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-plugin-but-needs-to-be-updated-2/)󠁿

 [HolyOne Tombari Dodoh](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hotomdo/) November 11, 2018
1 reply

I love this plugin… Presently the best in handling sheet music. Wished there was
a tab to show all the music on a page at the frontend.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/88108968234d2f4ce5544338277e994989687a3a26c7f1e288631bbaf882b50f?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-7631/)󠁿

 [gippo](https://profiles.wordpress.org/gippo/) January 21, 2018

At lest a plug-in for sheet music. It is the only one and works great. Thank to 
the developer.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/46c4c5e69201c5f24d546a0c82677248963c168a2c7a1b313e1957a649f957b9?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great way to get a sheet music library setup!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-way-to-get-a-sheet-music-library-setup/)󠁿

 [atkulp](https://profiles.wordpress.org/atkulp/) April 12, 2017

Provides metadata, PDF, and audio/video support. Very easy and looks great!

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e4cb3e967362c9e1074ae859b40309102088aa39d184a13e981d2a96619c8846?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Potential Weaver 2 Compatibility Issue](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-view-piece-after-creating-it/)󠁿

 [kakosey](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kakosey/) September 3, 2016 1 reply

I had major problems getting it to work with my site already configured with Weaver
2 customizations. I found to get this to work I had to run a complete wordpress 
reinstall and apply the plugin before adding the customizations back in.

 [ Read all 4 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Sheet Music Libary” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Nick Halsey ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/celloexpressions/)

“Sheet Music Libary” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to [the translators](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/sheet-music-library/contributors)
for their contributions.

[Translate “Sheet Music Libary” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/sheet-music-library)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sheet-music-library/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/sheet-music-library/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/sheet-music-library/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/sheet-music-library/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 2.0 – 4/1/2023

 * Enable the Block Editor for the Sheet Music post type. Sheet music data remains
   managed within a meta box below the post content, matching the 1.2 interface.
 * Update minimum WP version to 6.1 for custom taxonomy compatibility with the core
   query and terms blocks.
 * Add editor blocks for each component of the default sheet music template filtering
   display.
 * Refactor post template filtering to use the same rendering functions as the new
   sheet music library blocks. Default front-end output display should not change.
 * Add block patterns for use in sheet music query loop blocks.
 * Add block patterns for use in theme templates, for sheet music post type single
   and archive views.
 * Add collections taxonomy, not displayed by default, for use in query blocks and
   optional display in custom templates.
 * Add a playlist block pattern to improve the workflow of adding playlists to posts
   in the block editor, until core provides feature parity with the classic editor
   playlist functionality.
 * Add UI options in the customizer to disable content filtering and to disable 
   default styling, for use when sheet music templates are set up via block UI and
   the site editor.
 * Add file date modified display to all file download buttons.
 * Minor adjustments to the direct download unavailable message box.
 * Add styling to support small audio players, which can be enabled through the `.
   condensed-audio` CSS class and is included in some block patterns.

#### 1.2

 * Add the “Sheet Music Audio Playlist” widget, which automatically compiles the
   sheet music audio present on a given page into a playlist. This is particularly
   helpful on taxonomy and search views.
 * Add the “Sheet Music Recent Audio Playlist” widget, which displays a playlist
   of the most recent audio posted. The sheet music associated with these posts 
   is not directly available, so this widget is best used alongside a recent posts
   widget.
 * Add a way to display a message in place of the PDF download buttons on a piece-
   by-piece basis, where some music is not freely and publicly available.
 * Introduce the ability to remove attachments from a piece in the post meta box.
 * Minor keyboard accessibility improvements in the piece files meta box.

#### 1.1.1

 * Fix enqueuing admin assets for custom post meta UI.
 * Add missing localized strings for JS.

#### 1.1

 * Add audio players to sheet music in the table views from the [all_sheet_music]
   and [latest_sheet_music] shortcodes.
 * Add support for translations via plugin language packs.

#### 1.0

 * Initial public release.

## Meta

 *  Version **2.0.1**
 *  Last updated **2 years ago**
 *  Active installations **100+**
 *  WordPress version ** 6.1 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.6.5**
 *  Languages
 * [English (Canada)](https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/sheet-music-library/) 
   and [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/sheet-music-library/).
 *  [Translate into your language](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/sheet-music-library)
 * Tags
 * [library](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/library/)[music](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/music/)
   [music library](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/music-library/)[sheet music](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/sheet-music/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/sheet-music-library/advanced/)

## Ratings

 4.3 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  2 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  1 4-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  1 3-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/reviews/?filter=1)

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Nick Halsey ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/celloexpressions/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sheet-music-library/)