Maylath's work is a characteristic nineteenth-century parlor piece designed for pedagogical enjoyment and amateur performance. It utilizes standard dance structures to highlight basic rhythmic phrasing.
Students must focus on balancing the light, recurring waltz bass with the melodic phrasing in the right hand.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Beside the Sea is rated Henle level 2 of 9 — beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 2–3. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 3.
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 Beside the Sea lasts about 3 minutes.
Beside the Sea 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 Beauties Power by Henry Maylath, Autumn Leaves by Henry Maylath, Belvédère by Henry Maylath — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.