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 sharp minor feels tense and incisive, built from sharp rhythmic figures and intervals that produce a dark, nervous color rather than extended lyrical lines. Among the technical challenges, pay attention to Ornements baroque (3.1/5), which demand clean, rapid embellishments — small fingered attacks, precise finger pressure and wrist flexibility so trills and mordents remain articulated without weight — and to Lecture clé de fa (3.1/5), which requires confident left-hand reading with accompanimental jumps and clear control of the bass voice to support the texture. It belongs to Scarlatti's output of keyboard sonatas within the late Baroque idiom, showing his taste for contrast and concise virtuosity among his short keyboard pieces. I do not have a single, reliably identifiable recording reference to recommend for this specific work.