Introduction

Intermediate Classical Piano Repertoire Table
Difficulty 6 - Difficult

The following definitions apply to the "Comments" column of the table:

Accidentals- The piece contains a significant amount of sharps/flats for its difficulty level.
Activity or "busy"- Constant or near constant motion in 8th notes or shorter.
Alberti bass- Pitches of a chord played successively in the order lowest, highest, middle, highest.
Cross-rhythm- Notes with different divisions of the beat played at the same time. For example, triplet 8th notes against two 8th notes.
"familiar"- A well known piece; the student may have heard it before (this is often a motivating factor).
Interpretation - The piece requires a significant amount of artistic interpretation.
Legato/Staccato articulation - Any combination of legato and staccato required to
interpret a phrase.
Murky bass - Broken octaves in the left hand could pose a challenge for small hands.
"noodling" - Fast, "busy" passages of 8th notes or smaller durations.
Octave reach- Requires the reach of an octave, may not be possible for small hands.
Time signatures - Any time signature that is not 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4 can pose a difficulty depending on the level of the student and are therefore mentioned in the comments section.
"Walking octaves" - Similar to murky bass, but with more movement up or down.
Wide leaps/hand "jumping" - The piece requires a lot of moving hand positions up or down.