Hey Bill, regarding the 8.19.17  1:53 am question about reading sheet music. I am not the guy/gal who asked this question. But I would like to know what step 2 is (I have some staff paper). I know how to read sheet music (I know the notes that correspond to the lines/spaces of the treble and bass clef), and I know how to read rhythmic notation... But I have a hard time actually just sight reading and playing a piece fluently without having to take a second to figure out each note/rhythm pattern. (Maybe i'm skipping a couple of steps in your step-by-step system)
just go to the store and get a book of songs and start practicing. read just the melodies if you want. do it with a metronome. set it slow enough so that you can do it. maybe even be aware of you handicap compared to the original tempo, for example maybe 75% is reasonable. so if the song is marked 100bpm, set your metronome to 75. or maybe even 50 if you need to. and practice looking ahead. that's the key to the game