I have found some wonderful sight reading books by Jon Schmidt called 67 Fun Songs. This year I have started all my new students on these books and have taken all my old students through them as well. I can't tell you the difference they have made in the skill and confidence of the students. Instead of looking at me with, "is this the right note" expressions, they have confidently been able to find 5+ octaves of notes (every written note on the Grand Staff and they know how to read the ledger notes as well). Its amazing to see how quickly they pick up on note finding. If you compare music sight reading to learning to read written words, this 67 Fun Songs program would be similar to learning phonics. The students know where to find written notes, but they learn to name the notes later. Knowing the names of the notes is not nearly as important as knowing where they are on the piano. So the two books are
67 Fun Songs and
67 Fun Songs Primer. I start my younger students out on the primer. The older students usually pick up on the regular book pretty well.
I'm a huge fan of the Piano Adventures series. Students seem to really enjoy the songs in these books and I love that the series covers technique. When teaching siblings I usually try to use a few different curricula, so there is less competition between siblings.
I equally love Piano Town.
I use the follow books to supplement students curriculum:
Suzuki books
Scale Skills
John Thompson
Students also enjoy playing from Movie Hits books as a reward for good, consistent practicing.
I have hundreds and hundreds of supplemental books and I try to lend them out to lower the cost of books for parents.
