Well they say that I’m “wordy,” but I think you win. Well done! You’re going to do fine. I think to your surprise you’ll have to do less rather than more, given all the things you’re concerned about. You have the desire, you’ve got the basic concepts within written music, and you’ve had that history as a child on keyboards coordinating finger movement in an structured manner to produce ordered pitches. Lastly, you don’t think that making music is playing a radio.
The Ecodear was an excellent choice. I think they have the best voice of a number of today’s plastics that sound great. Going Alto gives you a ‘mid-voiced’ instrument that’s easy on the ear of player and listener alike and on which all the genres of music sound at home.
Lessons don’t structure the rate of progress in learning. They only organize a student’s exposure to what they contain in an order that doesn’t confuse. Your abilities and level of interest will reveal how fast you progress.
As someone that’s self-taught as well as attended conservatory, I’ll tell you that teachers are the best way to fly with the caveat that you need a good one. On the other hand I’ve found self-teaching can provide a much deeper involvement in what you’re learning. If you go with self-teaching, get a method-book series that has CDs both to set example and accompany. Hugh Orr or Mario Duschenes have F fingering books of good reputation. You can read about them here…
https://aswltd.com/adultmet.htm#begin
I teach with Sweet Pipes. No CDs but lots of good melodic material to keep things interesting, gathered by an excellent Musicologist teamed with an excellent teacher.
Hey the best of luck and thanks for sharing that you’re diving into the pool. You’ll do fine, I’m sure. — k