PS sheet music difficulty levels and search terms

[Bob]

Is there a range for the search terms related to the number levels assigned?

I did a search for easy and noticed 2, 3, 4, 5 for the difficulty levels. 

Is it something like this?
easy 1-5
intermediate 6-7
advanced 8 and up

[Bob]

To answer my own question...

easy, level 1-4, about 16 pages of hits
intermediate, level 5-7, about 50 pages of hits
advanced, level 6-8+, about 90 pages of hits

The spread of difficulty level is interesting.  The easy stuff is where the money's at from what I hear.

[concerto_love]

Oh, really..

[Bob]

Oh really what?

There are lots of every level of piece.  I just never realized how much of each difficulty level.  I wanted some easy sight-reading material.  16 pages sounds ok. 

[concerto_love]

Oh, i see... 

[nilsjohan]

When limiting the search results to a certain level the ranges are overlaping each other like this (almost as you thought):

Easy: 1-4
Intermediate: 3-7
Advanced: 6-8+

Since the assinging of levels is somewhat subjective it is possible that for example one piece which is set to level 4 could by some be regarded suitable for a student normally playing level 3 pieces. So the reason for the overlaping ranges is to avoid that pieces are excluded from the search results if they could be relevant for the level range searched for.

I do not get your point about level spread and money. How do you mean?

[Bob]

In school music publishers make their money selling beginner music.  The easier the music, the more of it they sell.  On a scale of 1-6, 1 being the easiest, they'll make their money from the level 1 music.  Why?  Because there are so many beginners and everyone buys that stuff.  The piano method books must be the same.  How many buy Alfred or Bastian Level 1 compared to the Hammerklavier?  I see that in the piano advertisements I get.  The educational composers, cranking out music for beginners.  It makes money for them.

So then for this site, I'm thinking it's got a lot of beginners.  Lots of teens.  I just expected the music to be slanted toward the easy side.  But it's more.. music history oriented(?) I guess?  Repesentative of the standard composers.  Standard pieces.  I don't mind that. 

I guess another way of looking at it is the easier music gets consumed faster.  How long will someone spend on that before they need a new piece?  Need to buy a new piece?  Versus someone spending months and years on a difficult piece. 

At least that's what I've seen in school music.  Sometimes publishers lower the level on their music to make it sell more.  If it's really a level 3 and they slap a 2 on it, they sell more. 

Just an interesting aspect of the site.  I was just thinking about it more.  What the site actually is, what it's going for, how it's advertised.  That type of thing. 

And I guess I'll take that as a positive sign.  Nils hasn't sold out.  Of course, I wouldn't mind easier stuff to sight read through.  I was looking for that when I searched for difficulty levels.