Pièces pittoresques No.10 (Scherzo-valse)
WaltzScherzoPiece Piano solo 5 min
In brief

This Scherzo‑waltz gives off a playful yet showy dance character, alternating springy motifs and dramatic outbursts that require rhythmic clarity to stay light and danceable. You will face in particular the Passages rapides (4.1/5) — here prioritize minimal finger motion, flexible finger articulation and forearm rotation to link fast runs cleanly — and the Octaves (4.1/5), which call for arm weight support and coordinated wrist‑forearm alignment to produce power and clarity without tension. The piece belongs to Chabrier’s Pièces pittoresques, appearing as a character number within that piano collection rather than a large orchestral work.

MusicCoach difficulty
70/100
Advanced
Likely range : 63–77/100
Confidence : 53% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
On the syllabus: Grade 7 ABRSM

Official level, taken from the exam syllabus.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

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.

Does this rating look right to you?

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.

Add a note (optional)

Your note is not published on the site: it is read in review.

Difficulty sources
Combined exam syllabi
Grade 7
66/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
93%
Among Emmanuel Chabrier
85%
Era
91%
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Octaves
1
Technique
Staccato
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Technique
Fast passages
2
Technique
Hand independence
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

See the whole progression