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 rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.
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.
The piece unfolds as terse, incisive miniatures, often short and sharply contrasted, where broken accents and brief silences create a biting rather than lyrical mood. You will face specifically Polyrhythm 2 against 3 (3.1/5) and an Impressionistic style (3.1/5): the former requires rhythmic independence of the hands and precise accent placement (think in groupings so the hands articulate cleanly), the latter calls for subtle color shifts and a refined use of touch and pedal to bring out veiled sonorities and overtones. These Aphorisms occupy a place in Shostakovich's modern output, reflecting his taste for compact, aphoristic forms within his catalogue. I do not give performance references here because I am not 100% certain of a single widely recognized recording for this work.