Focused on sonata form and related forms, this paper intends to confront the use of Jan LaRue’s tools with peculiarities of works by some Minor Masters. My purpose is to take examples from the instrumental repertoire from Haydn’s contemporaries to the French composers of Berlioz’s time and to show how the system of symbols, essential for a stylistic and comparative analysis, needs to be adaptated to pieces outside the usual models. More specifically, while stressing the usefulness of these symbols for a formal analysis, I will try to emphasize how important it is to adjust the system, originally based on a very limited span of music history, into a rich and supple set of symbols allowing a more flexible discussion of the stylistic differences among the Minor Masters themselves and between Great and Minor composers. Finally, I will discuss the idea that the analysis of Minor Masters may modify our vision of the norm based upon Great Masters.