Yes! We are the same!
I also exclusively learn by watching the falling keys method on YouTube. I did learn to play Epiphany from the movie Soul using actual sheet music but it was just note by note finding the C key and then counting to what key I needed to play lmao. Then I just have to memorize it because looking at the sheet music as a whole is like looking at a paragraph written in Japanese or something.
I constantly say to myself I need to start back at the basics and learn to read music and learn where the keys are and all that stuff and then I don't and instead learn to play the first 30 seconds of Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol before moving to learning the first 30 seconds of the Top Gun Theme then moving to Right Now - Van Halen for cat football reasons.
Like you, I just find it really fun to play something recognizable. I have no interest in practicing scales lol.
lol exactly. i can't fathom actually ever reading sheet music. that's why webpianoteacher's method really appealed to me. the problem i have with him is that i never watched all his tutorials and don't really care to - so i don't know exactly what all his various squiggly lines mean. also, the production quality of his lessons are objectively bad - it's sometimes very difficult for me to tell which keys he's pushing with which finger, and when. which means i have to waste a lot of time going back 5-10 secs to try to decipher what he did. then he will realize he mis-wrote something, so he'll say it but then race through it. then he'll skip to a different part of the song without telling you. some tutorials are certainly better than others, but i find the whole experience to be somewhat aggravating. unfortunately, he has many of the songs in his library that i want to play, which is why i never cancel.
if you could combine piano with nate's presentation and teaching style, with webpianoteacher's song book and general approach, i'd be a much happier bad piano player.
not sure if you've ever used them, but the silicone labels you can place on top of the keys is incredibly helpful, but with an obvious downside. i was at my in-laws house, and they have a piano. it was suggested that i play one of the two aforementioned songs that i actually know how to play. so i sat down and prepared to play. but without my silicone labels, i literally couldn't even get started. i was completely lost. 
learning sheet music is pretty easy. you don't really need to know the rhythm/counting stuff -- especially if you're playing familiar music. But recognizing which notes are where is very helpful. I know webpianoteacher (or just "sean" as we call him in my house) does a whole walk through on theory which is helpful and interesting (imo). the circle of fifths, in particular, is mindblowing just to see how all of the puzzle pieces fit together. idk, i think it's interesting.
Really, if you can just get a feel for knowing what notes are in what keys and knowing the general chords associated with the keys, that goes a long way. OTOH, if that feels like homework or boring or whatever, don't bother with it! keep having fun playing piano! but the circle of fifths is neat and i bet you guys will agree if you watch a 10-15 minute youtube video on it.
im gonna have to check out the circle of fifths. one thing i figured out only recently was that my method for practicing is awful/inefficient and my timeline for learning a new song is insanely unrealistic. as a complete newb, with no real training, i really thought i was going to learn a billy joel song beginning to end in a couple of days - and that the path to progress would be fairly linear. what makes it worse is that when i get stuck, instead of focusing all my time/energy on the part where im stuck, i always play through the part i actually know leading up to that point. again and again until the stuck part. so i'll play 25 seconds of stuff i know, get stuck, smack myself in the head, then return to the beginning. then i repeat the 25 seconds of stuff i know, then get stuck again, then back to the beginning. i repeat this process again and again, and keep getting stuck in the same spot. why wouldn't i just stay on the stuck spot until i get unstuck? it makes no sense and i have no idea why i do this. my only theory is that video games i played as a kid reinforced the idea of always going back to the beginning - like mario after getting bitten by a piranha plant. you go back to start!
literally LOL'd at the thought of you sitting down at your in-laws piano at thanksgiving or something and then having a panic attack because the keys weren't labeled.
what made this worse is a 6 year old took my place and ripped through a very solid version of ode to joy (she takes lessons).
We are the same piano player. I've played the first half of Severance roughly 5,000 times all the way through, and the last part (the part I struggle with) about 12. Always start over. Maybe there is something comforting to an insecure piano player about always going back to what you know instead of sitting in the struggle and fighting through it. Probably a life lesson in there.
I also had a similar experience with public humiliation. We were at my wife's grandma's nursing home and there was a piano in a common area. My son was playing songs for her and several older people gathered around and were listening. Then my wife said I should play In Christ Alone (old people love hymns) so I sat down to play, but the piano was different than my digital keyboard and it broke my brain. It wasn't even that different, just the difference between a piano and a digital piano but it did something to me. I got through the first few bars and kept messing up/went blank. Probably some stage fright in there too, but I really think if it was my home piano I would have been fine. I stood up and said, bring the kid back up, and my son went back to playing Interstellar or something.
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