Waltz e minor KK IVa,15
Waltz Piano solo
In brief

This E minor waltz alternates a nostalgic and sprightly character, with the right hand tracing a dance-like line that can suddenly take on a more intimate shade. Technically, you will face specific challenges in Nuances (2.5/5) — requiring fine dynamic shaping over short phrases to give the melody its contours — and in Legato (2.5/5) — needing precise fingering and hand control to maintain connection through leaps; Demi-pédale (2.5/5) also matters here, using slight pedal releases and reapplications to blend harmonies without blurring the texture. It belongs to Chopin’s body of piano waltzes and exemplifies his ability to combine dancing elegance with quieter, introspective moments.

Listen to this work

These recordings are found automatically, and the machine still gets it wrong. One click from you — yes or no — fixes the catalogue for every musician who opens this page after you. Across our 10,000 works, your answer is our only real quality check.

An arrangement or transcription is fine: if you recognise the work, answer yes. Answer no if it is a different work, a different composer, or if the recording does not play.

  • Play — Barenboim: Frederic Chopin - Valse in E minor Op. Posth. · EuroArtsChannel (the player loads on click)

    Open on Youtube ↗

    Is this the right work?
  • Play — Waltz in A Minor, B. 150 · Frédéric Chopin, Jin Ah Kwon (the player loads on click)

    Open on Spotify ↗

    Is this the right work?

No account is required and no personal data is collected.

MusicCoach difficulty
57/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 45–68/100
Confidence : 55% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6

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.

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
Henle Verlag
6
62/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
34%
Among Frédéric Chopin
66%
Era
68%
Genre
Estimated skills
Pedaling
Half-pedalling
1
Technique
Legato
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