IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) is a website dedicated to providing musicians with free sheet music of pieces that fall under the public domain. Here you can find a large library of works ranging from 50 years ago and earlier that are no longer under copyright. The entire project is community driven so all the uploaded scores vary in terms of the arrangement, instrumentation, and date. You may find many PDF's of the same composition but arranged for different instruments and from different dates.  

Grove/Oxford Music Online is an essential music database for those studying music, it is another resource almost every music student will use at some point in their study. The link will take you to the Grove homepage where you can access over 52,000 articles regarding music history, theory, and culture. If you want to know more about ANY aspect of music, you can find an article about it on Grove.  Each article is also easy to navigate and gives you the ability to immediately generate a citation for Chicago, MLA, and APA formats. Some articles may be locked though so you will need to sign in from your school or universities student portal.

The WindRep Project is a comprehensive database of music for wind bands that has been contributed to by band directors, professors, students, and music enthusiasts worldwide. This link takes you to the homepage where you can find alphabetical lists of music organized by composer, ensemble type, genre/style, and instrument soloist. Each entry features the title of the work, the original composer, the various arrangers, the exact length of a performance, the difficulty, instrumentation, publisher, and most importantly, the cost of the piece. For directors or students preparing recitals, each entry also includes program notes from various performances of the piece. 

The Institute for Composer Diversity is one last database that you should have bookmarked in your web browser; This one features an EXTENSIVE database for art songs, choral works, orchestral works, and wind band literature specifically by underrepresented composers. The link takes you to the homepage where you can access all the databases listed above as well as the resources and analysis used by the institute. You can also check out the first of many diversity reports which go into great detail about the kinds of music by underrepresented composers being programmed and how often. 

Musescore is a completely free, user-friendly music composition program. Almost every single music student will need to compose something at least once in their educational journey; Musescore is one of the best and most accessible free tools for this. The application requires a small learning curve but allows for complete creative freedom in every step along the compositional process. This link will lead you to the download page where you can also find a wide array of support including a community-driven support forum and FAQ.

Tonal Energy is a metronome app available for $3.99 on the App Store or Google Play store. The link sends you to the tonal energy website where you can browse the various functionalities of the app before you consider buying it. The tonal energy tuner is by far one of the best purchases one can make as a musician. The app functions as a metronome and a tuner, but it also allows you to record and listen back to your playing at any speed you choose with a waveform analysis telling you how sharp or flat you were at any given time. You can also use this app to track how much you practice and the progress you are making.

The Yamaha Website has a good, interactive resource for fingering/position charts for most of the major instruments. Each page has an interactive image of the instrument that changes to the appropriate fingering when you select a note and it also gives you the option to view alternate fingering/positions.  This website is meant as a starting point for learning the fingerings for your instrument.  Another fantastic website is The Woodwind Fingering Guide, a complete guide to all woodwind instrtument fingerings (including bag pipes).That being said, there is no master website with all the detailed fingering charts you need, so some individual sleuthing is needed to locate more advanced charts. 

The Random Scale Machine is a website that is as simple as its name implies; It gives you a random scale to play! There are 5 categories that you can choose from to get a randomly generated scale: major keys, minor keys, major AND minor keys, major AND harmonic minor AND melodic minor keys, or just the key name without a scale quality. If you don't have the time to practice all 36 scales regularly, this website is a great way to keep you unbias in your practice. 

The Practice Revamp by Classical Wellness is a digital practice journal and took-kit designed to inject mental wellness into your day-to-day practice as well as establish sustainable practice habits. However, this digital kit is a one-time purchase of $24.99 and is worth every penny. For those looking for free alternatives, here are two articles by Music and Arts and School Music Online that talk about how to establish a good practice routine. Classical Wellness also has an Instagram with a myriad of helpful tips on mental health and practice.

The Horn Guys  is a fantastic website for purchasing Brass instruments and brass instrument accessories. Woodwind Brasswind offers the ability to purchase both woodwind, brass, AND percussion instruments and accessories. 

Music and Arts is one of the most well-known music stores in the United States. They offer perfect beginner instrument rentals, they offer repairs, AND some locations even offer lessons. These locations also sell instrument accessories, method books, staff paper, and notebooks.  Bertrand's Music is a lesser-known Southern-California- specific instrument shop that specializes in instrument rentals and repairs. Though they may not be as well known as Music and Arts, they typically make great deals with local schools, offering lower prices on rentals and a rent-to-own policy so you can keep the instrument after a certain number of monthly payments. Hickey's Music Center and Midwest Sheet Music are great sites for purchasing beginner-advanced sheet music for all instruments. Both websites offer the option to purchase physical copies or have PDFs sent to your email within 24 hours. 

For decades, J.W. Pepper has been the spot for musicians from all walks of life to purchase sheet music. Here, you can listen to pieces and preview the music before you buy it. Hickey's Music Center and Midwest Sheet Music are great sites for purchasing beginner-advanced sheet music for all instruments. Both websites offer the option to purchase physical copies or have PDFs sent to your email within 24 hours.