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 minor sonata has an incisive, energetic character, alternating sprightly, percussive figures with darker, more introspective moments that call for crisp articulation to maintain rhythmic drive. You will need to work on Analysis harmonique (3.6/5) to anticipate and smooth the quick modulations — concretely, that means mapping harmonic functions ahead of execution so you can adjust pedal use and right-hand shaping during chord changes; and Ornaments baroque (3.1/5) require precise execution of trills and mordents, so prepare fingers and stable fingering to place those small values without blurring the line. The piece belongs to Scarlatti's baroque keyboard sonata output and is one among his many short sonatas that probe virtuosic and coloristic effects. I do not give a reference recording here because I am not 100% certain of a single authoritative interpretation for this specific sonata.