My hard drive is too full of music

Hello Apple Support community.

My computer's hard drive is too full. it is due to my enormous iTunes library.

Since I cannot store and access my iTunes library on an external hard drive (like I can with my even larger photo library), it was recommended I use iTunes Match and ALL of my library, purchased or uploaded from CD's will be stored in the cloud and I can access it remotely using any of my devices (laptop, desktop, iPad and iPhone).
I completed this procedure but how do I remove the songs from my hard drive?
I tried to delete one song but it said if I delete it off the hard drive it will be removed from my icloud library too.

I am stuck and not sure how to resolve this

thanks

Larry *****

*****@ shaw.ca

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