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 E minor Sonata by Scarlatti feels sharp and percussive, built from abrupt responses and leaps that create rhythmic tension rather than long lyrical lines. You will face specific technical issues such as Connaissance des formes (3.6/5) — you must quickly identify repeated modules and prepare reprises to maintain phrasing logic — and Ornements baroque (3.1/5), which require crisp, brief execution of appoggiaturas and mordents at brisk tempi; Reading in the bass clef (Lecture clé de fa, 3.1/5) is also important to balance the lower voices when successive bass-lead leaps occur. As a Baroque piece, it sits among Scarlatti’s numerous keyboard sonatas, valued for their concise structures and inventive idiomatic effects. I do not list a reference recording here out of caution, since I cannot be certain of a single widely recognized interpretation for this specific sonata.