Musical sheet music

Vocal selections, vocal score, piano-conductor

Vocal selections is the standard retail product: eight to fifteen songs from a show, arranged for a single voice with piano accompaniment, usually simplified from what is heard in the theatre and often transposed into a friendlier key. It is what you want for singing at home, for lessons, and usually for auditions.

A vocal score is the complete musical — every number, every reprise, dialogue cues, in the theatrical keys and with the original vocal arrangements including chorus parts. Companies mounting a production need this. Individuals rarely do.

A piano-conductor score is the pit pianist's book and is generally supplied with a licence rather than sold. If you find one for sale, check what you are actually getting.

Buying the music is not a licence to perform it

This is the point that costs schools and amateur companies real money every year. Purchasing sheet music gives you a copy to play from. It does not give you the right to stage the show. Performing rights for musicals are handled separately, by licensing agents, and they supply the performance materials as a hire package.

The practical rule: singing a song from a musical at a recital or audition is fine. Staging any part of the show for an audience requires a licence, whoever you bought the book from.

Audition books and keys

Audition anthologies collect songs by voice type and difficulty, usually with sixteen- and thirty-two-bar cuts marked — the standard audition lengths. They are better value than buying individual show books if you are building a book rather than learning one score.

Keys vary between the vocal selections, the vocal score and any anthology, for the same song. If you are working with an accompanist, agree the edition as well as the song.