It alzo makez a differenz if u play with yo fingah tipz or da moah flezhy part of da fingahz. Alzo, too much tenzion in any part of da uppah body (wrizt, shouldahz etc) may affect da tone quality in a negativ way. Lack of elasticity in forte octaves will rezult in a moah bangy sound. Though da 88 haz a ratha pre-fab sound in general, cultivating tone-quality iz needed thru a well-coordinated n natural relaxed technique.
Sum elite peniztz like da Ho did.
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hahaha da ROBBAH providez da truly zcientific anzwah 
This and
this.
I really resent how much tone reveals about you. Your piano teacher can definitely work on it, but the most worthwhile change might very well come from a visit to your doctor, psychiatrist, chiropractor, bank, holiday retreat or gf/bf instead. I don’t have much experience with this but I also think it’s not only about the piano itself but about how well you bond with it. If you’re not friends, the struggle will show up in the tone.
Daim, this answer randomly cryptic and depressing.
Hahaha rezpecfully alzo related to DIZ -
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Nooo… what I think it comes down to is 1) awareness and 2) a well functioning nervous system. A teacher can help you listen to yourself and make you aware of how what you’re doing at the keys translates to sound, and fix things like posture, seat height etc which will impact how you sound. But your tone at the piano is also a bit like your voice or the fine facial expressions IRL. If something’s not right - if you’re worried, tired, stressed, annoyed, angry etc - that will affect it as well no matter how hard you try to hide it. What I meant was that sometimes it’s not piano instruction or a shoulder massage you need, but an aspirin - or a holiday.
Alzo, different works demand different tone quality
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Yes but they all demand that you can draw the kind of tone you want from the piano, and that tone is something in your pianistic vocabulary at all.
I randomly missed that DaVent wrote he didn’t play the piano. If it helps I can write a little about the bro-science behind it, which might make this subconscious part a bit clearer (although I don’t think it’s that different from on guitar).
Den we have anotha aspect - playing in a large hall.
I used to practice in enormous ballet studios on small Steinway grands, and learned to get a full “projected” tone, back in 2011
Then I randomly got to the point where I would start to force and play everything with a deep keybed tone, sweat buckets and have a large amount of wrong notes…
Somehow it is not just about volume, but projection and how well you balance all the elements of a texture
Beauty of the tone itself is subjective
Some pieces demand a brilliant and articulated tone while others need a more “muted” yet big bodied quality
Da TRU masters like da FRIEDRICE wud make da melody notes “glow” with EXPERT bass support, juz enriching da overtone series of da note AFTER it has been struck
All dat being said, yes, dere is such a thing as a “pure beautiful tone” even on one UNPEDALLED motherfucking note, and don’t let anyone tell you othawise
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Den we can get into things like “recorded tone” wiz @xsdc which is anotha art
Like taking a gud photo
Imho da best piano recs haff a slightly hazy, muted quality.
I is thinking of all da Abbey Road HMV studio recs in particular.
Like a monochrome pic dat can make even da 
HOT.
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Yeah I don’t actually play, but it’s my favorite instrument (go figure). It would help in understanding it better if you could explain this.
Da moz beautiful n pure 88 tone I haff evah heard
Belong to Maeztro Midi
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Cuntroverzial az alwayz
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Ah da glowing tone n RICH harmonies. Daddy Friedman!
Moistbeach dun disappoint
Holy shit, early HO smooth as balls
Cortot!
Edwin Fucker:
And da NAZI EVENING BALLZ
The way a pianist thinks of sound production (it’s not strictly speaking correct) is that sound at the piano is fundamentally created by the weight and the speed with which a key is struck, and it’s the degree and relation between the two which creates tone. The nasty & wonderful thing is that despite being a mechanical instrument a piano is quite sensitive in picking up even minute differences, which is why a good pianist can control it almost like we can with our voice. Furthermore, the actual speed and weight you apply to a key depends on some complex bio mechanics. Everything from how you lean your upper body down to the angle of the finger joints - basically any combination of anything that can move from your feet up - will affect that speed/weight relationship at the fingertip.
Learning to play the piano is partly about making your brain learn to control all this in a deep-learning kind of way, in order to produce the desired sounds at the piano to make the music sound like you want it to. A poor pianist will only have rudimentary mastery of this, while a good one who’s played since he/she was 6 will have it to a very fine degree indeed. But one thing you’ll notice early on is that for this to work without friction and the music to come out the way you want it to, muscle relaxation and a sharp, focused mind are key. Anything which affects either of those will put your piano DL network slightly off base, which will affect the biomechanics, and thereby how you sound.
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What an illuminating answer, thank you. So basically your whole body goes into it. I like what you say about muscle relaxation and a focused mind, I can see how that applies to most instruments!
Why speed/weight is only a mental model...
The weight thing might make sense if you think of a large church bell struck with a toothpick, a baseball bat, and a big oak log at isometric speed, but the reason it’s just a mental model at the piano is that even if you can alter the weight that falls on to a key, you can’t actually alter the weight of the hammer inside the piano which strikes the string. So the only variable you “actually” have is hammer speed. The important thing is rather that you alter the joints’ involvement as shock absorbers. A pianist thinks of a horizontal finger pressing down a key as a small weight and a vertical finger, with the entire hand behind it, as a large weight - but it’s actually that with the horizontal finger your joints will absorb part of the energy on strike so that less goes in to the string, whereas with the vertical finger the joints are stiff and in a worse position to absorb any of the impact. You can try this by striking a chord at the piano twice, first with a relaxed hand and then with a tense hand. The relaxed hand will produce a softer sound with a more mellow touch, compared to the harder and more unpleasant one with the tense hand - but you haven’t actually altered the weight, you have altered the involvement of the natural shock absorbers of your finger joints and wrist. This is why being able to be relaxed - or in other words having control of the most minute tension in your hand, wrist, elbow etc - is so important when you play, since even small offsets will change hammer speed.
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Daim this sort of sheeyat is very enlightening, thanks. To a simple enthusiast this stuff’s not obvious.