Hi oggy,

You should first do the legal.

Copyright law is different from what most people think - myths such as, "I'm not selling it for money, therefore I'm not in violation," or assumptions that because a song is a certain age the copyright has expired are typically wrong.

Each sheet would therefore have to be researched as to its current copyright situation, often is the case that copyrights have been sold to other, larger companies and the like, such that the listings on original documents are long out of date.

There are ways to license for publication, though, even services that take care of all the ins and outs and footwork, leaving the new publisher with a method of tracking sales and paying the licensing fees for each unit.

As for "memorizing" or having perfect pitch in order to transcribe, there's a far more easier way to enter the melodies into a program like BB with a MIDI keyboard. Simply find someone who can read music well. A good sightreader should be able to run through them rather quickly. Someone with lesser sightreading skills but able to read music can still do the job as well, albeit likely a bit slower for having to take more time to interpret, edit or correct.

I do think it would be best to take care of the legal ramifications first, before investing time and effort, make good and certain of the legalities of the issue and clear the path, so to speak.

Send me a PM here if you like.


--Mac

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