i have recently tried to not look at my hands while sight reading but find this a slow process.but surely sight reading is all about finding the notes by being guided by the black keys.
Learning to sight-read is a slow process. It's like anything else. You need to learn to walk before you can run. The biggest problem that people have with learning to sight-read is that they aren't willing to start at square one.
Moreover, there are two aspect to sight-reading. There is the intellectual aspect of it - the actual ability to read the score. That's the easy part.
But even when you can do that you can't really "sight-read", because sight-reading requires being able to just play what you see on the score. In other words, your fingers need to automatically jump on the notes. I see this as more of a reflex type of learning than having anything to do with intellectually understanding or reading written music.
I can read music to some very slow degree. Most of that is "intellectual" reading where I look at the score, realize what notes need to be played, think about where those notes are on the keyboard, and then go about finding them with my fingers. This often requires looking at the keyboard. Especially when the notes are far apart.
Even this limited very-slow method of sight-reading is useful for learning pieces, and can even help with playing hands together. The idea being that I've actually practiced the piece from memory so that my fingers already know how to play it, then by looking back at the score when I play I can help to "sew" the two hands together with the proper timings. Albeit much slower than the piece would normally be played.
However, I am also learning what I call "real" sight-reading. To do this I have actually acquired a computer program that I use with a midi keyboard. This electronic aid is not necessary, but I find it useful none-the-less. It instantly tells me whether I'm hitting the correct notes AND whether or not I am playing them correctly in time including durations.
The sight-reading lessons that come with this program begin at the very beginning. In other words, they just start out with having you play just a couple of notes at a time in a very limited range (maybe only a step or skip). Each lesson adds a few more notes and rests of various timings, etc. It's Kindergarten for sure!
In my mind this is the only way to really learn sight-reading proper. You simply need to start at the beginning. If you work up from here you should increasingly learn a feel for a wider and wider range of notes until you can jump octaves without a problem. How long it will take to learn it I don't know. But I am completely convinced that the fastest way to learn it is to start at the beginning.
Of course, I'm still learning advanced pieces too in my old way of doing it. The sight-reading lessons are almost a completely separate thing for me.
I've been playing the piano for a year now (without the benefit of sight-reading) and I've finally decided that it's time to bite the bullet and go back to square one and do it right. It will be a pain for sure. But it should prove to be well worth the effort.
For me the computer software and midi interface to the keyboard makes it fun. It's more interesting, plus I have the added advantage of the computer telling me precisely what I'm doing wrong. And there is a really great sense of accomplishment when I play through a lesson and all the notes turn green at the end. That means that I've hit them all correctly, not just the correct notes, but I got the timing and duration correct for all of them too. That's a great feeling that you'll never get from using a piece of printed music on a piano.
This program has already helped me immensely because I can instantly see what I'm doing wrong (i.e. hitting wrong notes, or hitting them too early, too late, or for an incorrect duration). The computer can correct me and show me my mistake with a detailed accuracy that no human teacher could ever dream of doing. Plus, I can use it whenever I want at my convenience. I can move at my one pace.
Sorry for the long post, but since I too am frustrated with not being able to sight-read I thought I'd post what I'm doing to correct this lack of sight-reading for myself.
Topic: sight reading