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 unfolds with a crisp, biting character: sprightly motives, sudden rhythmic breaks and strong dynamic contrasts that require clear articulation and precise attacks to keep the dance-like profile light and expressive. Technically, the “Connaissance des formes” (3.6/5) here means identifying recurring sections and repeats so you can shape breaths and cadences appropriately, and “Ornements baroque” (3.1/5) requires executing embellishments with steady rhythmic placement—often small mordents or turns—that integrate into the musical line rather than stand apart; reading in bass clef (Lecture clé de fa, 3.1/5) will appear for the left hand and demands fluent reading of bass lines to preserve balance. As a Baroque keyboard sonata by Scarlatti, it belongs to his extensive cycle of keyboard sonatas designed to exploit contrasts between the hands and sudden modulatory turns. I do not provide a reference recording here because I cannot be fully certain of a single authoritative performance for this specific sonata.