English Suite no. 6 in D minor, BWV.811
Baroque Suite Piano solo ~15 min
In brief

The mood of this D minor suite alternates between brisk, nervous episodes and darker contrapuntal passages, with rhythmic replies that sustain tension more than simple melancholy. You will need to focus on the Passages rapides (4.4/5): these require sustained digital agility, quick fingering changes and economy of movement to maintain clarity and articulation in fast lines. Ornements baroque (4.1/5) are also essential; you must execute trills and mordents crisply and briefly, observing the articulation and timing appropriate to the style. A work of Bach's Baroque output, it belongs to the set of English Suites and is part of his series of keyboard suites originally intended for the clavier (harpsichord) and commonly played today on piano.

Listen to this work

No verified recording for this work yet. We add more every week.

Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
63/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 51–75/100
Confidence : 25% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 7

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.

Relative difficulty
79%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
73%
Era Baroque
71%
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Fast passages
1
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
1
Style
Baroque style
1
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Technique
Hand independence
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
Technique
Three-or-more-voice polyphony
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