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Thank you guys, I hadn't thought of this 'quantity' issue with sight-reading material! So I just ordered a bunch of other stuff, including Hannah Smith's book and Improve Your Sight-Reading 1 and 2. I have the Big Book of Beginner's Piano Classics but most of it is still too difficult for me to sight-read.

I'm devoting 15 minutes a day to this and I really want to improve! Still, sight-reading music is not just reading, you also have to 'translate' what you read to the keyboard. So hard when one's technique is still so poor!

Is it just me or I don't know, sight-reading is very tiring for me. I am mentally exhausted after 15 minutes or so.

Sight-reading, when you give it your full focus and attention, is a very mentally demanding task. I can also only focus on it for about this long, too, being a beginner; our mental stamina will likely improve over time and/or, as our skills improve, sight-reading will likely require less focus from us mentally in order to do a decent job (at least until maybe the material rises proportionately to match the increase in abilities).

Mete and Bobpickle, you're both right in my experience.

At the beginning I only did about 15 minutes a day, as it was very mentally tiring for me. There's a lot to focus on and you're working your brain like any muscle. It gets stronger with practice. As the muscle gets stronger it can endure more demanding tasks for longer. As I moved towards the end of my Big-Note phase, I was sight-reading music for an hour at a time, sometimes 2 if I had the time, just to solidify everything going on in my mind.

I got my new easy piano books today, and they're not so much more difficult as to put me off or make me drop back down a level, but they're hard enough to make me slow down a lot and not make too many mistakes.

As layman's terms, neurological connections get stronger each time they are used.

A little bit every day for me too. I have the in app metronome set at 42. When I am done with all my little exercises, I will start over but at a little bit faster speed.

Question;
If you are playing for example in D major. You have 2 sharps, F# and C#.
Do you think about them in sense of recoginizing the F's and C's on the sheet music and then know these have to be played like F# or C#? Or do you just look at the intervals and really know the scale you are in so that the interval will directly lead you to de F# and C# without thinking about it?

Till' now I used the first method.. but I began doubting it.. maybe it's much better to really "fit" in the scale so you don't have to think about de F's and C's on sheet music but only about the interval and cause your mind is in the scale it will be automatically F# or C#. For 1, 2 or maybe 3 sharps it doesn't make the biggest difference but when I sight read these little pieces in C# en F minor I find myself thinking to much about the notes in stead of the intervals.

I can't really answer this question, it is still too early into my sight reading journey. I am just as curious as to the answers others will give. For myself I try as much as possible to read intervallicaly and will often not play the correct sharps or flats, my brain is yet to inhabit the scale. I am hoping just more experience will correct that problem.
I asked my music teacher something similar a month back - I asked did she read the intervals or the notes and she surprised me by saying both. This followed on from an early comment when I was trying to explain how I was seeing and reading music. I had asked if this was ok was I on the right path and again I got a surprising answer, that there was no right way, that whatever works for the individual is ok. I can accept this in the respect that sight reading seems to be made up of lots of things, interval, chord, pattern recognition. Sight reading is going to be a personal thing with everyone having little differences of execution. I did search for a while to find a book on the subject but I can't find the art of sight reading explained.

My approach with key signatures is that I play the related scale a few times and then I'm sort of blocking out the notes that are not in it - in D major I will just know that there won't be natural F's and C's unless they have a natural sign in front, so I just avoid those keys. It's like putting one's brain in a specific mode, although I don't know if it's a good way or not. Actually it makes it harder to change key within a song and even to practice two songs in a different key at the same time.

Lost Woods:

From my own experience, here are my two cents.

Know the scale. When I play in D major, I know that all C's and F's are sharpened, so I only ever play C sharp and F sharp. Before I start the piece I have to know the key signature, and when I do that I get myself ready to play in the correct scale. If it's a scale I haven't sight-read in much, I play the scale up and down a few times.

It's also useful to know the chords in the scale. For example, in D you have D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm and C#dim.
In F minor, you have Fm, Gdim, Ab, Bbm, Cm, Db, Eb.

Even just knowing some chords in the scale, it will help your hand fall into the right place when you're playing chords (broken or otherwise), most likely in the left hand, and you can adjust any alterations from there.

I use the "know all F's and C's are raised" method. Getting it to happen automatically is just a matter of practice, and being careful to play those raised notes correctly while practising.

I also +1 sinphilia's method.

I got my new books Unfortunately I'm up to my eyes in work right now, but I will start the Hannah Smith's book next week.

I also got ABRSM sight-reading books for grades 1 and 2, just to check the kind of level I'm supposed to reach sooner or later.

Exciting! I love new books!

I think these are the same ones I have in the ipad app. I work them at mm=42 (don't laugh!) and plan to start over at a faster tempo when i finish them.

I do it at about 40-50. It's amazing how you notice your mistakes when you're that slow.

If I try to go faster, I can't even keep up to even make any mistakes!

Ok sight reading bootcampers. As most of you have more time at the piano under the belt than myself there are several burning questions I have:

1. I have searched intently on the web for any blog, site or book describing the sight reading process so I have read just about every "the ten principles" or the "just exercise more" pages. I am interested in what my brain should be doing as I approach the piece. Has anyone found any reading matter on the subject worthy of sharing (also read Super Secrets of Sight Reading & Fundamental of Piano Practice.

2. I feel I may be in a bit of a slump as far as my SR is concerned which is probably why query 1 is there. So my next question is can you remember when your sight reading made a sudden improvement and could you put it down to any changes you had made.

I'll answer number 2.

It wasn't very sudden, but the biggest improvement I made after a year of using sight-reading books was when I stopped using those books and started reading through Big-Note books slowly. The critical thing that the method books were missing was the fact that you have to stay on one particular level for long enough so that you actually become proficient. 80 pages isn't enough. You need hundreds.

That makes a lot of sense Maechre

I've returned to the boot camp to update with the original intent of the thread -- to post videos of sight-reading. It wasn't easy to start because it involved creating a whole new email address, and a third Youtube account, but I did it today anyway. So here's the first video.

I hope others will come to post their own videos. We're not here to judge, but to encourage. We're all at different levels and sight-reading is a tricky business. First attempt, second, third? Let us know. Four might be pushing it. This was my first attempt -- I should have looked it over first, and checked the key signature.