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.
This Aria with three variations in A minor feels alternately singing and restrained, the harpsichord sketching an expressive melody that unfolds through small rhythmic and modal transformations. Practically, you will need to focus on Voix chantante (3.9/5) — here that means bringing out the principal melodic line with finger shading and subtle touch so the cantilena remains continuous despite ornaments — and on Analyse harmonique (3.8/5), to anticipate modulations and adjust voice balance during harmonic shifts. A Baroque keyboard work, it belongs to Buxtehude’s corpus of keyboard pieces where variation on an aria reflects the practices that led into the later Baroque style. I do not give a reference performance because I am not fully certain of a single definitive recording for this specific piece.