I have been part of HN community for over 2 years now and I really love learning from all the smart folks who hang around here. I have decided to learn to play Piano and I would love to know if my fellow hackers have any tips. Here are few questions I have:

1. Can I learn it on my own from the online courses OR should I get a teacher? [Time is a problem for me, I doubt I can get a teacher to teach me at 9.30pm.]

2. Any Piano learning course you guys recommend? I have found that Rocket Piano and PianoForAll are quite popular. Any experience with them?

3. Has anybody tried Piano Marvel software? http://www.pianomarvel.com/ The game mechanics built in to the software appeals to the geek inside me.

4. In my research, I came across http://www.pianofundamentals.com/. The author (Dr. Chang) claims that the popular 'Hanon' practices are not very useful. He also claims that learning using his method is 1000 times faster than other 'regular' method. Any experiences in this area?

5. Finally, I want to be able to learn to play by ear. Any good material on how I can achieve that? [Or am I toast because I am starting this at the age of 30 and not when I was 10?]

Thank you in advance for all your inputs!