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 sonata has a rhythmic vivacity and clear melodic lines: repeated figures and short contrasts give it a playful, incisive character that requires crisp attacks and precise articulation. You will need to work on Connaissance des formes (3.6/5) to mark the two-part structure and handle repeats — concretely this means shaping dynamics and attacks at section entries and reprises so the binary form remains audible — and on Lecture clé de fa (3.1/5) to ensure fluent reading of the lower voices, which here translates into a stable left-hand position, clean bass leaps and sustained legato in the left hand. From the Baroque period, the piece belongs to Scarlatti’s large set of keyboard sonatas, short contrasted and often didactic pieces. I will not suggest a reference recording because I am not 100% certain of a specific authoritative interpretation for this exact sonata.