There are lots of occasions when we try to find out how difficult (or easy) a piece of music might be.
We might need to do this when we are:
- trying to decide whether or not we think we could tackle something
- looking for new pieces to learn within our current ability range
- searching for a level of music to use for sight reading practice
The challenge
Of course, if your interest is more into popular music or jazz, then the ‘difficulty’ level is a question that is less relevant. You will find arrangements of most popular music to suit all ability levels. The challenge really comes with Classical Music. There are exam board gradings, but these only really cover the limited number of pieces within the syllabus.
The answer
However, there is an answer. Luckily for we classical musicians, perhaps the biggest classical publishing house – Henle in Germany – invested quite some time ago in having their entire catalogue classified in terms of difficulty. Henle probably publish pretty much the entire repertoire – certainly finding something they don’t publish would be more difficult than something that they do publish.
Of course, when I use the term Classical music, I’m using it in its widest sense. The Henle catalogue of course encompasses including Baroque, Romantic, Impressionist etc.
Henle’s specialisation
The main focus of Henle is on what are called Urtext editions. Expressed simply, these are editions that aim to get as absolutely close to the composer’s original intention as possible. They will neither seem to distort nor embellish the original text.
In fact, you’re probably more familiar with these editions than you might think. They all come in a very familiar ‘blue’ cover that we’ve all seen in music stores, libraries and elsewhere. This makes them instantly recognisable.
Basically, Henle are specialists in classical music.
The classification project
In order to classify by level of difficulty, back in 2010, Henle asked one of their editors, Prof. Rolf Koenen, to undertake the mammoth task. This effectively involved not only studying every piece published by Henle (both past and present), but also working out an objective and easy to understand classification system.
Prof. Rolf Koenen’s answer to this problem was to create three main categories:
- Easy
- Medium
- Difficult
He then split each category into 3 – effectively giving difficulty ratings from 1 to 9 – with 1 being the simplest and 9 being the most difficult.
Note that these 9 levels do not adhere to any Exam Board classification of difficulty. Rather, they are an independent rating designed to give an idea of how difficult a piece is to bring to a full performance standard. For example, level 1 of ‘Easy’ covers music up until around the ABRSM Grade 3 level – so this easiest level is possibly a little too broad for the very beginner. However, nonetheless it provides an excellent first indication of whether or not a piece is likely to be within your grasp.
The basis for classification
Professor Koenen states the following:
A number of parameters have been considered when assessing the level of difficulty. I have not just looked at the number of fast or slow notes to be played, or the chord sequences; of central importance are also the complexity of the piece’s composition, its rhythmic complexities, the difficulty of reading the text for the first time, and last but not least, how easy or difficult it is to understand its musical structure.
However, given the inherent difficulty of trying to get everything to fit into these 9 levels, professor Koenen also notes pieces spanning two levels (for example a rating of 4-5) – so this effectively giving 16 possible gradings.
How to use it
Using this rating system really couldn’t be more straight forward. Simply head over to their website – www.henle.com. There is a ‘Store’ area where you are able to search the entire Henle catalogue.
Let’s say for example that you want to discover get an idea of your current level. If you think Chopin’s C Sharp Minor Waltz represents your current level, then a first option is to do a full text search for it. The search results will show every Henle publication in which the Waltz appears. Simply select one and you’ll be able to get its level of difficulty. This particular piece is marked with a level of difficulty of 6 – the upper end of Medium.
Now let’s say you want to find other pieces, around that level. We can simply click on ‘Other Titles with this level of difficulty’. You’ll now be directed to the catalogue filtered by this difficulty level.
If you are looking for sight reading ideas or pieces to really stretch you, then you might simply search by level of difficulty. Again, the shop allows you to do this directly.
I demonstrate how to do some simple searches in my video:
Try it for yourself
All in all, the Henle Level of Difficulty is an extremely useful thing for any amateur pianist trying to understand how difficult or easy something might be.
It’s free to use and gives a ready reference to most of the piano repertoire. As a bonus, it’s possible then to either buy the hard copy edition or get digital versions direct to your iPad if you prefer to work from such beautiful urText editions.
Clearly, it is to an extent subjective and can’t really take into account your own strengths and weaknesses. Nonetheless, it is perhaps the best starting point you’ll find currently. If you know of something else, please let me know in the comments so I can investigate.
I highly recommend it as a great research tool – especially as you search for new repertoire to learn.
If you’re looking for other great piano resources, then I highly recommend the following too:
- Graham Fitch’s Piano Practice eBook Series
- Rami Bar Niv’s Art of Piano Fingering
- Melanie Spanswick’s Play It Again Piano
