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I used to play piano, taking classical lessons up through college, and playing in a few odd bands until around 2008 when I stopped musicc altogether. I started taking flute lessons about a year ago, and decided to start playing piano again after falling in love with some of the accompaniment parts for the pieces I was listening to. My teacher introduced me to some websites that have a great and reliable selection of quality flute sheet music (as well as all things related to playing the flute). Is there anything like that for Piano? I prefer giving my money to someone other than Amazon when possible, but so far, I haven't found a particularly great alternative.

There are many online stores that specialize in selling sheet music. Some of them offer both digital downloads and physical copies.

I avoid Amazon as well. I buy directly from the publisher.

Have you looked at what's available from sheetmusicplus.com?

Regards,

Amazon mostly since the money does go to the actual seller and manufacturer in the first place. Price is good, shipping fast and free and zero issues with returns. Why would I pay more for smaller outlet that charges for shipping and still pays their staff minimum wage??

If I can't find it on Amazon than sheet music plus is a good alternative.

I use my city's only sheet music store, and their webstore. It has very amateurish search function that leaves you lost all the time, so I just email them what I need. Because they are small, independent store run by real people, customer service is second to none. I don't mind paying few extra euros to support local store.

@Eric, I use SheetMusicPlus.com, SheetMusicDirect.com, and MusicNotes.com. The last two only do digital, in the form of pdf downloads, the first one sells both physical scores and digital. Periodically you’ll see sites that sell digital scores and you have to use their apps to access them, I don’t do any of those because I think you don’t have enough control over the file.

I like SheetMusicPlus.com because they often have a lot more information, say about the level/difficulty of the arrangement etc. And both SheetMusicPlus and MusicNotes often have videos or recordings you can listen to before buying, which is helpful.

Like many others, I try to avoid buying sheet music on Amazon as much as possible.

I buy almost everything from Juilliard Store, they have huge inventory, regular 20-30% off sales, and offer free shipping anywhere in the US on orders $75+.
Another frequent source is melbay.com - this is usually for their guitar scores and books as pdf.
And the third one is Amazon.

Ficks Music's online store:

https://www.ficksmusic.com/

Incidentally, for my 60th birthday, my wife, who had no idea I shop there, bought me scores created by two composers when they were age 60 or greater. She told me she needed help researching such pieces, and the vendor went out of their way to help her when they didn't have an immediate answer. "Who is it?" I asked, "if you don't mind me asking." "Ficks Music," she said.

Anytime I go to a new city I seek out stores that might sell sheet music for piano.

The jackpot was the Kulturkaufhaus in Berlin which had knowledgeable staff and multiple copies of the same sheet music various publishers so I could finger through and see/feel which physical book appealed to me the most.

I pulled a uno-reverse amazon and checked my amazon wishlist for sheet music I wanted to then buy physically in the store. Additionally I found several "must have" books after looking.

#2 was a Flesher Hinton in Denver. I had to catch a flight so they offered to pack and ship my selection for free since it probably would have weighed too much to fly.

But yeah any music store, you can check in and see what they have for piano sheet music.

sheetmusicplus has provided me top notch editions and excellent service, justifying the usually full retail prices.

Sheetmusicplus has a large selection, but I have found it difficult to search for a particular item and easily filter results. Also, in the past I have had situations where I've had to wait weeks for a sheet music order to process and ship. But it's good to have options.

With regard to the Juilliard store, I worked there as a work-study job when I was a student from 1979-82. I had to keep the place stocked, and operate a large mechanical cash register (back when you had to know how to count out change! 😉).
I remember the store being robbed twice while I was there, once by apparent gunpoint (held under the guy's jacket, but who knows?). I just opened up the register and he grabbed a bunch of bills. My supervisor, Al Pischl (Yes, that was his name), indicated that I had done the right thing, saying "We don't want any 'heroes' here!"
At this point I would imagine a good deal of their sales are online, and they do have access to a large and varied stock.

I haven't bought sheet music in a long time, preferring to download from IMSLP to my iPad and directly into ForScore. If I just have to have something not on IMSLP, I use Sheet Music Plus or Amazon. ...I should say that I accumulated a large library of printed scores before downloading to a tablet was possible, so I'm well stocked in urtext editions if I need them for comparison to what I get from IMSLP.

I'm also a big fan of IMSLP. I usually just print from IMSLP, although I'm considering getting a larger computer screen and downloading into ForScore.

IMSLP is a great resource, but for some stuff, I do like paper. Though, I have a pedal in my...amazon...cart that should allow me to page through stuff on my ipad hands free...so, that makes digital more appealing. One complaint with IMSLP is the blurry photocopies. I have to zoom in sometimes and, even then, if there are fingerings and an accidental, it's not super easy to tell what exactly the fuzzy markings are supposed to be.

I've bought several things from Sheetmusicplus. Some good stuff and some kinda junky editions. I think my biggest gripe with them is the bad search and it doesn't seem to be curated, so there is a lot of junk there. What I like about the flute store my teacher turned me onto is that they seem to be selected for flute players/teachers and not just anything with the keyword flute in it. So, when I wanted to find a sonata by gaubert, it was pretty easy to find the right one and I had confidence it was going to be a decent copy. And, their suggestions actually helped me find a piece that I had heard in a recital and couldn't remember the name of. On Amazon, I saw a several of complaints about the flute insert being missing and the purchaser only getting the accompaniment book (which has the flute part, but requires a lot more page turns).

I bought years and years ago a Henle hardcover (nice fabric cover) edition of Beethoven Sonatas from a trip to New York, a sheet music shop next to Juilliard, I think. It has been my trusty old friend, with fingerings and all sorts of stuff written to it, including my then 2 year old daughter's bold self portrait on one page, drawn with pencil rather heavy handedly, and never to be erased. Two books filled with hundreds of hours of practice, sweat, performances, joy and memories.

Every time I have to play using pile of imslp prints, I think of this investment, and how much happiness proper sheet music can bring to your life.

I continue to purchase sheet music occasionally, as I was never entirely comfortable playing from an iPad screen, one page at a time. I realize that printed page turns can be cumbersome, but I always found it difficult to coordinate either a pedal or some sort of face gesture when using the iPad. Also, the reflected light off a page is easier on the eyes. Since I have a laser printer capable of duplex operation, I use pre-punched paper and arrange it in a small plastic comb binder, which I find is far superior to tape or a three-hole loose leaf binder.

Above recommendations are very good

In addition, Presto Music in UK is very good, they ship to the US. They stock publishers that are difficult to find in the US.

While I buy most scores from Juilliard (because of regular sales and logistics - I live close to NYC), I also buy some scores at tfront.com, usually those missing from the Juilliard catalogue (Scarlatti Fadini vol. 10, for example).
What is interesting, Hal Leonard is the official Ricordi distributor in the US, and their online catalogue has the vol. 10 missing (I have the correspondence with them confirming that it is not in their catalogues). Juilliard gets most of its scores from Hal Leonard, and also has the vol. 10 missing from their catalogue. Theodore Front sells the vol. 10, and mine has a label saying it is distributed by Hal Leonard.
Same with new Debussy Durand editions - some are missing at Juilliard, but are present at Theodore Front.
Go figure.