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 Sonata in F minor unfolds with a tense, sharply articulated character: incisive rhythms, quick exchanges between the hands and a dark atmosphere that calls for precise articulation rather than romantic rubato. You will need to focus especially on Connaissance des formes (3.6/5) to delineate the binary sections and their repeats — this means shaping phrases at transition points and adjusting articulation and dynamics for returns of material — and on Ornements baroque (3.1/5), which require nimble finger and wrist work to execute mordents and embellishments cleanly and with forward momentum without breaking the line. Typical of Scarlatti’s large output of keyboard sonatas, it belongs to the late baroque repertoire of short, concentrated works that combine ornamentation with technical exploration.