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.
The work unfolds a liturgical, contrapuntal character: the chorale melody stays clear while the variations ornament inner voices and establish recurring pedal-like harmonic anchors, creating a measured yet woven texture. You will need to work on Harmonic Analysis (3.8/5) to spot modal progressions and tension points where voices must be aligned — this requires the practical gesture of mentally marking pivot chords and adjusting attack to keep polyphonic clarity — and on Dynamics (2.5/5), which here calls for careful control of finger pressure and pedal technique to bring out the chorale line without smothering inner voices. This piece belongs to Sweelinck's Renaissance keyboard output, where he develops chorale variations and contrapuntal forms that point toward later Baroque practices.