This piece is a characteristic example of 19th-century amateur piano music, often used for instructional and recreational purposes. It relies on a balanced structure and diatonic harmonic progression.
Maintain steady rhythmic integrity in the bass while phrasing the melody cleanly.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Belle of the West is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 3.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 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 Belle of the West lasts about 3 minutes.
Belle of the West 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 Barbara by John Pridham, The Entertainer by Scott Joplin, Bach-anh-114 by Johann Sebastian Bach — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.