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 organ piece transcribed for piano has a terse rhythmic clarity and contrapuntal tension that call for crisp articulation and a contained pulse rather than Romantic expansiveness. You will need to focus on Reading bass clef (3.1/5) to maintain smooth handling of the lower lines — this requires precise finger and wrist control to bring out bass voices without overwhelming the texture — and Baroque ornaments (3.1/5), which demand short, sculpted embellishments executed with secure fingering and quick recovery into the melodic line. Placed in the North German Baroque output, the work belongs to Buxtehude's liturgical and contrapuntal pieces and exemplifies his economical, functional counterpoint adapted here for piano.