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 D major sonata has a bright, playful character built on crisp motifs and rhythmic calls that require clear attack and incisive articulation rather than broad cantabile playing; you will often encounter call-and-response figures and jaunty passages needing precision and lightness. The skill “Connaissance des formes (3.6/5)” is important here: you must recognize and shape the binary sections and repeats so that reprises make musical sense, which involves consistent choices of articulation and dynamics at each repeat; the skill “Ornements baroque (3.1/5)” requires executing small embellishments (mordents, quick appoggiaturas) with supple fingers and a controlled wrist so they integrate without breaking the flow. Placed in the Baroque period, the sonata belongs to Scarlatti’s corpus of keyboard sonatas and exemplifies his technique of developing simple motifs into lively, contrasting movements for solo keyboard. I do not provide a recording recommendation because I cannot confidently identify a single widely recognized reference for this exact sonata.