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.
These Intermezzi project a contemplative, intimate character, shifting between tender cantilenas and more restrained passages that require preserving an inner line within apparent simplicity. You will need to work in particular on Phrasing (2.5/5) — here that means shaping each long melodic line with subtle timing and breaths so the melody sings above the accompaniment — and Touch Control (2.5/5), which involves adjusting pressure and attack speed to produce very velvety onsets on sustaining notes without wiping out the accompanying voices. The pieces belong to Brahms’s late piano output, written as concise, inward miniatures.