A lightweight Romantic waltz designed for pedagogical or home performance purposes. It relies on standard harmonic progressions and clear, symmetrical phrasing.
Ensure the waltz-rhythm remains steady and the downbeat is not overly heavy.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Autumn Leaves (Op.40) is rated Henle level 2 of 9 — beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 2–3. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 2.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 2 — meaning you can already play level 1–2 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Autumn Leaves (Op.40) lasts about 2 minutes.
Autumn Leaves (Op.40) is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include 18 German Dances and Ecossaises by Franz Schubert, 18 German Dances and Esoccaises by Franz Schubert, 18 German Dances and Esoccaises, by Franz Schubert — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.