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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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The safest next step.
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A useful leap with guided practice.
This F minor sonata unfolds with a tense, dramatic thread, alternating sharply articulated rhythmic figures and dark lyrical episodes that require crisp articulation and contrasted dynamics to convey gravity without exaggeration. Technically you will face, in particular, Analyse harmonique (3.6/5): you must identify and shape the modulatory progressions and cadences to guide breaths and local tensions, and Lecture clé de fa (3.1/5): reliable reading of the left-hand line with its leaps and counter-melodies is necessary, implying stable hand placement and controlled attacks. Written for harpsichord and often played on piano, it belongs to Scarlatti’s large body of sonatas as an example of his expressive and harmonic experiments within the Baroque period. I do not provide a reference interpretation here out of caution, since I cannot confidently name a single recording universally acknowledged for this specific sonata.