Playing into the keys

[turtlethief]

My piano teacher always tells me to play deeper into the keys, that I'm just playing on the surface. She suggested practicing louder but it doesn't seem to be helping much.

Any tips on how to play more into the keys?

Thanks

[jeff]

perhaps by using more relaxed arm weight?

[rachfan]

Along with more relaxed (but controlled) arm weight, if you have an adjustable bench, try lowering it.  If you're sitting too high, it raises the wrists and hands, and makes you play more on your fingertips, which is a drier, lighter, more brittle sounding touch.  It may be contributing to the problem in causing you to create "gray music".

[Celeste]

It's hard to play on different pianos and get the same sound. While you may be playing "into the keys" on your piano, you may not be getting the same effect on your teacher's piano. This I find true for me.

[JohnOgdon]

You want to watch ths "playing into the keys" talk, it is a recipe (in my experience) for excessive tension and makes for a more complicated and less comfortable (and worse sounding) piano method.

[Laurie_H]

Yeah, basically you just need to relax your arms and use the wieght rather than wacking the keys. But if you don't know what your teacher's telling you to do then ask him/her to explain it again - that's what they're there for!