Broke by Jean Havez is a lesser-known piano character piece often associated with early 20th-century popular stylings. Its simplicity of form relies on a straightforward harmonic progression that favors accessible emotive expression over complexity.
Focus on maintaining a steady pulse while balancing the melody against the accompaniment.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Broke is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 4.
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 Broke lasts about 3 minutes.
Broke 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 Prelude in E minor, No. 4 by Frédéric Chopin, Black and Blue by Fats Waller, 'Who Knows?' by Ernest Roland Ball — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.