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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This G minor sonata has a bright, incisive character, with quick replies and sharply placed accents that maintain tension rather than a relaxed lyrical line. You will need to work on Connaissance des formes (3.6/5) to identify the binary structure and clearly organize repeats and phrases — this requires precise decisions about breathing, articulation and dynamics on each half-phrase — and Ornements baroque (3.1/5) will demand very clean, economical gestures (mordents, small appoggiaturas, executing trills with reliable fingering and controlled wrist release) so the ornamentation does not blur the line. The piece belongs to the Baroque keyboard sonata repertoire by Domenico Scarlatti, which often experiments with dramatic effects and concise virtuosity. I do not give a recommended recording here because I am not fully certain of a single widely recognized reference for this particular sonata.