What do these "grades" mean?

[dtao12]

Forgive me for not knowing this, but people talk about "Grade 8" etc. and as I look up the piano sheet music, many of them have a Grade (but a lot of the advanced pieces just say "Grade 8+" yet there seems to be a tremendous variation of levels of difficulty all classified as "8+" For example, Beethoven Pathetique and Liszt B minor Sonatas are both 8+, yet the Liszt is far more difficult.

But aside from my issue with not enough differentiation at the top end, what do these grades mean?

Thanks,

David

[stevebob]

I attempted to answer your question recently in this thread:

Levels on Piano…

I have a feeling that the topic has been discussed many other times in the past as well, so I would recommend doing a search on the relevant terms.

And you're absolutely right about the lack of differentiation at the highest rankings.  For a startling example, check out Sheet Music Plus's classification by difficulty level into 10 groups from Early Elementary through Advanced:

SMP Level Guidelines

SMP's categories are probably no more arbitrary than those found elsewhere, but they obviously represent repertoire up through late intermediate/early advanced ... and disregard everything beyond that point.  (Who would have guessed that Brahms's Rhapsodies Op. 79 are Level 10 and demonstrate a requirement of "virtuosic level technical facility."  )