Thanks Pallas and everyone else for the very useful information! I have been a lifelong avid reader of both fiction and nonfiction, so I'm quite happy to add music reading to that skillset... gradually 
The Sight Reading Thread
WieWaldi you could look up the RCM complete syllabus online
https://rcmusic-kentico-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/rcm/media/main/about%20us/rcm%20publishing/piano-syllabus-2022-edition.pdf
Then check some of the pieces at each level on IMSLP to get a bit of an idea of the difficulty level of the RCM rep books
I'm using a couple of books in addition to the easiest repertoire I can find for sight reading: Paul Harris's "Improve Your Sight-Reading!" and Keith Snell/Diane Hidy's "Sight Reading" (Kjos).
Nowadays I'm going through easy pieces by various well known composers through imslp. I figure it would double as musical education.
Sophia To the ones who have the book, is there any piece you would recommend to start with?
Hey Sophia I went through the book today looking for the easiest pieces. I did this after I read @WieWaldi 's post about looking at notes on the page and thinking about where the key is, and I'm afraid I may have given you a bum steer about "Easy Classics to Moderns" containing sight reading pieces for beginners.
WieWaldi, Sophia, Pallas, Nightowl, and others who are posting recordings: Your playing sounds really good and I am grateful that you are sharing recordings. I love listening to you play! You all play so well that I forget about what you may be going through with reading music. Thank you WieWaldi for reminding me and in no way do I mean to disparage anything you're doing! You are all amazing and I'm so glad you are here!
Anyway, I identified what I think are the three easiest pieces in "Easy Classics to Moderns" vol. 17:
Dmitri Kabalevsky: Chit-Chat, p. 138: I believe this is the easiest piece in the book. Only one hand plays at a time.
Dmitry Kabalevsky: First Dance, p. 136: This is probably much harder than Chit-Chat. If you work out the chords in the LH before playing it may be doable.
Jean Philippe Rameau: Rondino, p. 34: Played slowly this might be approachable. Watch out for the polyphony in the left hand in the second measure of the fourth line, or maybe just skip the last note in the left hand in that measure.
I suspect that "Chit-Chat" is the only piece that's even close to being sight readable. That's not a lot of sight reading material for a 160 page book!
I'm past being a beginner but when I was working my way through "Easy Classics to Moderns" I struggled with many of the pieces. It's amazing what the editors of these books call "Easy"!
I second that! Really really grateful for all the help and encouragement. I'm learning a lot as well! Most of all patience 
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rogerch It's amazing what the editors of these books call "Easy"!
This! 
And this is the reason Christian Fuchs had named the first 16 Blues lessons "for Beginners", and after this he named it "Easy". For beginners (bloody, total, early, or real beginners, you name it), "easy" is really hard.
Btw, thanks to @plop_symphony I found a series of books for a reasonable price. (also available at amazon.bavaria)
Improve Your Sight-Reading! Piano Grades 0, 1/2 , 1-8 from Paul Harris, Faber publishing.
And it is available as paperback and kindle versions.
Updated this list: WieWaldi
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About grades and difficulties:
I ordered Improve Your Sight-Reading! Piano Grade 1 as eBook and immediately returned it.
Treble and bass clef were used alternating, but never for both hands together. Very similiar setup as the following video:
IMO, Grade 2 is the lowest worth getting. If you are a true bloody beginner, and if even one hand is challenging enough, you can play both hands separately after each other. The learning effect should not be that different.
Maybe this is helpful for choosing the lowest grade, if your sight-reading is at my level.
For me sight-reading is relatively important. I have been playing piano for about 12 years and continuously work on it. In terms of my sight-reading or playing progress, I do not notice any difference from week-to-week or even month-to-month, but when I compare what and how I played a year ago versus today, then I do notice a difference. In general, my progress over the years was sort of steady, there was not a large jump or so.
Besides keyboard playing, when I learn a new piece on my bass guitar, I also make it a point to learn from the actual written bass notes, not the fret numbers on the bass tab.
One iPad app that helps me is "Note Trainer". This app has various options, I typically select random notes in the C2-C6 range in random keys and with accidentals. I do like 320 notes per day, 10 sessions at 32 notes each. Below is how that app looks like. I use the app in conjunction with a Bluetooth MIDI transmitter plugged into my keyboard.
I realize this is not really sight-reading, because these random notes are not in any context. But still, those exercises have helped me address my following weaknesses:
a) Recognize from the sheet music which note it is
b) Find that note on the keyboard
c) Remember the key in which the song is played
d) Recognize accidentals
e) And do a) through d) fast enough so that it does not hold back my playing.
All the best,
MandM
WieWaldi There is also a series of complementary books - Improve Your Sight-Reading! A Piece a Week, by the same author (Paul Harris). The books are also graded from Grade 1 to Grade 8, and available for Kindle and as print books. I think they are a great addition to the original learning series.
Gooseberry Thanks you, added links to big list.
I found there are often 3 versions (like here):
- kindle (cheapest)
- Paperback
- Sheet Music (by far most expensive)
Does anybody what separates the sheet music from the paperback version?
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Coming into this thread late and have lots to say… 
But first, has anyone else used the Super Sightreading Secrets book? I have it, and years ago worked through most of it… but now I can’t remember whether I liked it or found it useful or not. 
