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Rather than try to anticipate bad habits to avoid I would like to offer a tip and that is develop a good hand position at the keyboard and gently press keys rather than forcing them down.
The very best thing I can recommend you, and which I personally think is even better for a beginner than face to face, is Piano Career Academy.
If you haven't had face to face lessons you cannot legitimately argue that. PCA is pretty good but there is simply no way it can beat interactive face-to-face weekly lessons. Interactive means that the feedback between demo, attempt, and correction is 30 seconds not 24 hours (or whatever time it takes to get a review) and you make many of those instant corrections right there during a single lesson. You can ask questions right away if you don't understand and get instantaneous answers and the teacher makes sure you know how to do everything correctly before leaving the studio. There is absolutely no video course in the world that can provide that.
BTW, I have recorded all my lessons and I can re-listen any number of times too.
Good teachers and good videos always explain and show the approach to good technique.
Yes, I was a little incautious there.
Videos from Josh Wright, Graham Fitch and Antune, who often posts here, are excellent and not the kind of video I was considering in my remarks. I have also recommended Ilinca's videos here but videos are supplemental; they don't constitute a complete course of instruction.
A lot of videos I see out there, often purporting to be instructional and some recommended in these pages, are not 'good instructional videos' and it was those I had in mind. I will repeat that watching videos CAN be deceptive.
ETA: That's Ilinca Vartic of PCA that I referred to.
The very best thing I can recommend you, and which I personally think is even better for a beginner than face to face, is Piano Career Academy.
If you haven't had face to face lessons you cannot legitimately argue that. PCA is pretty good but there is simply no way it can beat interactive face-to-face weekly lessons. Interactive means that the feedback between demo, attempt, and correction is 30 seconds not 24 hours (or whatever time it takes to get a review) and you make many of those instant corrections right there during a single lesson. You can ask questions right away if you don't understand and get instantaneous answers and the teacher makes sure you know how to do everything correctly before leaving the studio. There is absolutely no video course in the world that can provide that.
BTW, I have recorded all my lessons and I can re-listen any number of times too.
Agreed, the only caveat being that it really needs to be a good teacher who knows their stuff and pushes you to do better. The progress I've made in the last year with a teacher is much more than I could have only using video tutorials. You need to be able to devote a lot of time, however. It depends on the student as well, whether they are serious, practice regularly, and how well they can understand instructions.
By good teacher, I mean sometime who teaches say about as well as Josh Wright. If you learn directly from someone like that, you will improve A LOT.
First congratulations, from another even older sea dog, for living in Anglesey. Lovely spot. I used to race occasionally around it on sail boats, usually from Ireland. Treacherous tides, if I remember well. But I wonder if you will have much choice over there in terms of piano teachers.
It doesn't matter much. As a wisened up adult you are able to recoup a lot of info from the Internet and YouTube. My experience is that progress in the first years is scrictly proportional to the amount of time you will put into practicing. Prodigies will go through the process faster, dummies slower, but the rule always obtains. Motivation and sheer perseverance are the key factors. I started at 71, and five years later I'm doing OK. Bon courage !
Life is a smorgasbord, and I want to taste everything.
The things you should do include making a list of some of the pieces you'd like to learn (eventually), how far you wish to advance (whether you wish to pass conservatory exams or play as a hobby without the exams). Besides regular practice (preferably daily), try to keep track of your progress by making regular recordings.
There are quite a number of people who are already posting videos of their progress online:
As an adult learner I wouldn't consider myself "old" until the day I get diagnosed with "dementia" a few decades from now (maybe / maybe not). In our generation it's common to see older people take up a music instrument. Some people in my family are in their 80s & 90s but people in their generation think we need to start at a young age. Age is less of an issue for me than to suffer from depression like my father.
