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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A useful leap with guided practice.
This A minor sonata unfolds with a sharp, restless character: crisp attacks, strong rhythmic contrasts and a melodic line that moves between tension and release, feeling more like a driven dance than a lyrical air. You will specifically work on Analyse harmonique (3.6/5) — you must sense chordal shifts to shape cadences and adjust phrase accents — and Baroque ornaments (3.1/5), which demand precise fingerings and controlled wrist action to execute mordents and appoggiaturas cleanly without weighing down the flow. It belongs to the Baroque period and is part of Scarlatti's large set of keyboard sonatas, written for solo keyboard with an emphasis on agility and effect. I do not provide a reference recording because I am not fully certain of a single authoritative interpretation for this exact sonata.