Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.
Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.
Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.
The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.
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This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.
Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.
The safest next step.
A genuine step up, without a jolt.
A useful leap with guided practice.
The piece creates a floating, slightly off-kilter mood, like a Lied transposed into a space where folk-like fragments overlap and warp; the overall effect feels like an intimate narrative that wavers between clarity and haze. Pay special attention to the polyrhythm 2 against 3 (3.1/5) — this requires keeping a steady underlying pulse while the two hands articulate conflicting groupings, maintaining independence so neither hand drifts; control of touch (2.5/5) here means shaping differences of texture and color between inner voices and the melody by adjusting finger pressure to bring lines forward or let them recede. Situated in Ives's modern period, the work reflects his tendency to merge vernacular material with experimental piano writing.