Any keyboard/piano players? I'm looking to start playing

I got into this a little bit for my music/composing hobby.

I got a used Yamaha E213 keyboard which has the midi connection. Got it from Music-Go-Round and it had the power supply and manual and "survival kit".

The midi to USB cable was kinda spendy but I found a cheapish one on ebay. That comes with the software too. I was warned do not use an aftermarket cable.

Anyway this set-up is pretty nice, and beside the midi cable, I bought a foot pedal and a KB stand.

I'd say take some lessons to get started. There're things you need to knw, posture, how to hold your hands stuff like that you might not get with software or a DVD. Good luck!

How well do you read music? If you read it well, I think lessons would actually be more important- because your ability to reproduce notes will quickly exceed your technique. 

If you have forgotten how to read music, it wouldn't be a bad idea to start with the books. 

In short, you need to learn how to learn a piece. Well.....

My experience of being taught by a teacher is that they

1) regulate technical and expressive skills (eg. able to play faster, slower, softer and louder at will)

2) correct 'bad' habits (eg. too much pedal)

3) enforce 'good' habits (eg. relaxed hand while playing)

Much of it seems like common sense; like learning not to eat paper, but it's harder to continually execute than one thinks, because there is so much to consider while playing. Teachers will assuredly yell at you every time you don't don't remember to do something.

However what they will not do is teach you how to think about the music for yourself. I think it's a kind of discipline that you find out on your own. I'm not telling you this because I didn't think it was obvious, but for me, that point was where most of my fun began.

I quit being taught at around AMEB Grade 6, which is kind of the level where you can learn other 'fun' pieces independently and at a reasonable rate. (by the way what I mean by 'learn' is getting to know the technical and expressive aspects of a piece) (and 'fun' to me is game music, like final fantasy, and pop music. Now it is Charles Alkan who composed the heavy metal of classical music)

Fast forward 2 years of playing 'fun' pieces and gradually getting more daring...and then I learned Rachmaninov's 2nd Concerto 1st movement .

Okay I seemed to go into telling the world about my piano life (I'll stop now), but I hope I helped you in your decision making OP.

By the way, I have no experience with learning from a piano-learning book

Ryan