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 short piano piece feels light and somewhat enigmatic, alternating silences with brief gestures that call for close attention to small tempo and dynamic inflections. You will mainly face issues of Phrasing (2.5/5) — you must shape very short musical lines by clearly marking the beginning and end of motifs — and Legato (2.5/5), requiring precise finger connection and wrist control to preserve line continuity where the texture asks for it. The exact period of composition is not specified here; it is nonetheless a solo piano piece that belongs with John Cage's works for keyboard rather than his large-scale orchestral output. (I do not give a reference interpretation because I am not fully certain of a definitive recording.)