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 G minor sonata is marked by a sharp, pungent energy: crisp staccato passages, call-and-response between the hands and moments of harmonic tension that call for clarity and a sprightly touch. Technically you will need to focus on Baroque Ornaments (3.1/5) — here that means executing short, regular embellishments with precise attack and controlled release — and Reading in bass clef (3.1/5), since the left hand contains jumps and inner voices to be read directly, requiring secure visual and motor mapping. The piece sits within Scarlatti’s baroque keyboard output, typical of his brief sonatas that probe rhythmic contrast and virtuosic effects within a compact structure.