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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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.
This Fugue in C has a crisp, driven character, with assertive subject entries and contrapuntal passages that require clear articulation to convey the interplay of voices rather than stacked chords. The main technical challenges are Polyphony in three or more voices (4.4/5) — you will need to balance at least three independent lines by choosing precise fingerings and hand distribution so each voice remains audible — and Harmonic analysis (4.4/5), which requires grasping the progressions to anticipate resolutions and shape dynamics and phrasing accordingly. From the Romantic period, the piece sits at the crossroads where contrapuntal discipline meets a more personal pianistic expressivity.