Regarding the difficulty ratings used on the GT tutorials!
Standards have changed gradually a bit over the years depending on the editors in charge of assembling & labeling the tutorials. And depending on the current catalog of material available at any time.
We did try to label individual lessons at different levels within tutorials years ago. But that got problematic & caused more troubles than it solved. Some students felt it was disorganized & misleading.
With that in mind, the difficulty ratings are always going to have a relative component. Sometimes this is due to the easiest part of the song & sometimes the hardest part. So, it really depends on the context.
I think if the most iconic part of the song is a relatively easy riff it should be listed as beginner or easy.
Even if there are some lead fills that are more intermediate. This is exactly the situation with the Cinderella song mentioned in the OP. The current policy is that if you can play & recognize the song without that fancy lead fill or solo, then the rating should reflect that. However, if the most iconic or notable part of the song is a riff or complex part then the standard should reflect that.
And it's also variable according to the style. Easy in classical or jazz is going to be very different from easy in rock or blues.
Some acoustic songs have "harder" ratings because fingerpicking parts are more difficult to people that enjoy that style. Some rock songs have "easier" ratings because people that enjoy that style are used to those licks & style.
There are sometimes different standards used to label different styles & different songs. Much like different guitar students or players have a different set of skills they personally consider "difficult". In short, it's difficult to assign difficulty ratings objectively across the board for all songs & all players. :)
On the plus side, this forum exists in order to help users find songs or lessons or answer questions! If you need help finding a song that matches your interests or current skill level, please ask!
Hope this helps. Best of success with your guitar learning & playing!
