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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This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.
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 projects a lively, incisive character with short rhythmic replies and articulated accents that call for crisp, detached execution rather than long lyrical lines. You will need to rely on your Harmonic analysis (3.6/5) to anticipate progressions and shape cadences and modulations appropriately, and on Bass clef reading (3.1/5) which here requires secure reading in the low register to balance the left-hand voices and distribute accents clearly. The piece belongs to the Baroque period and is part of Scarlatti’s large corpus of keyboard sonatas, typically aimed at showcasing agility and clear contrapuntal textures. I do not give a reference recording here out of caution, since I do not have a definite authoritative recommendation to offer.