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.
The sonata has a rather incisive, playful character, with quick exchanges of motifs and sharp articulation contrasts that give it an almost percussive presence at the keyboard. You will need to work notably on « Connaissance des formes (3.6/5) », here concretely meaning shaping and differentiating the repeated sections and setting up reprises with subtle dynamic and timing adjustments, and on « Ornements baroque (3.1/5) », which requires executing mordents and short grace notes with a light touch and relaxed wrist so they remain clear without weighing down the line. The piece belongs to the Baroque period and is part of Scarlatti's large corpus of keyboard sonatas, each exploring distinct technical and expressive ideas. I do not give a specific reference recording here since I prefer not to cite a performer unless I am completely certain of the attribution.