Back in the days when piano lessons were provided by the elderly piano teacher who lived just round the corner and only taught pianoforte in the traditional way, things were much more straightforward when it came to expressing the mood of the music on your piano. You just read the music and followed the symbols and expressions on the manuscript. Today things are slightly more complicated, as electronic instruments produce sound in a completely different way. This is a matter to which we will return.

For now, just assume you are playing on a traditional upright or grand piano. When it comes to expressing the different moods of a piece of music, the pianist can produce a range of sounds by the manner in which he touches the keys. Press down a note heaviley and the sound produced will be loud. Press it lightly, and the sound will be soft. And there are an infinite number of variations in between that will create different combinations of volume and colour. As a skilled musician, you need to be able to control your playing by matching these variations to the mood of the music.

There are different exercises you can use to develop these techniques, but a simple method is to play a scale, say with the right hand at first, starting very softly and gradually increasing in volume until the top of the scale is reached (this exercise is better played over two octaves), then reversing the effect as you return to the beginning. Do the same with the left hand, then put both together. Try to produce a gradual increase and decrease in volume so that the sound produced is smooth and seamless.

Now do the same exercise, but this time produce the opposite effect. Start off loudly, gradually getting softer as you play up the scale, and then reverse the effect.

Once having achieved the desired overall sound, experiment with playing individual keys by applying different levels of force to get a variety of effects. Quite often the music will demand a different emphasis between the left and right hand and it is especially important to get the appropriate balance of soft and loud, unobtrusive and prominant, for example, when the left hand has the accompaniment and the right hand the melody.

Think about how you will interpret the music before you play it. Plan it, including practice pieces, by reading and taking account of the symbols on the manuscript. Make sure you know what they mean and think about how you will play the different sections of the piece. In particular, note the overall structure, and especially the finale, which will be quite dramatic. Also note how different sections change in mood, and don't forget about fingering. This needs to be planned too.

Finally, to return to electronic instruments. In the early days, the keys on an electronic keyboard could only produce one sound with one volume. If you wanted a different volume, you just turned the knob, but the sound was the same, only the volumne was different. Nowadays, almost all electronic pianos come with keys that are both weighted and touch sensitive. A weighted key determines the degree of pressure you exert to get a sound, and touch sensitivity refers to the different nuances of sound each key can produce, depending on the pressure you apply.

The problem is that some pianos do this better than others. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the ones that do it poorly tend to be the cheaper models or the less popular ones, or both. It's important to bear this in mind, because if you have a keyboard that reproduces these features poorly, you will learn bad habits and poor technique. More to the point, you will be unable to use the full expressive power of the music. Hopefully, you researched this when you obtained your piano, so it shouldn't be a problem, but it does need to be borne in mind.