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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The safest next step.
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This A minor sonata feels brisk and incisive, alternating clipped exchanges with brief lyrical episodes that call for precise, expressive articulation. You will need to rely on Connaissance des formes (3.6/5) to map out phrase units and prepare reprises and digressions, and on Analyse harmonique (3.6/5) to anticipate modulations and shape dynamics and voice balance: concretely this means marking cadences and adjusting the left-hand gesture to support harmonic motion while keeping right-hand lines clear. From the Baroque period, the piece exemplifies Scarlatti's taste for compact expressivity and virtuosic keyboard effects within the solo sonata. I do not give a reference interpretation here because I am not 100% certain of a specific recording for this sonata.