Having a hard time with the black keys
To preface, I am a beginner at the piano, but I do have many years experience playing the guitar, lately in a style similar to the greatest 60s instrumental guitarist Dick Dale.
I've begun by attempting to practice the scales starting with C, G, and D, but D is giving me some issues that I would like to fix before moving on to A, specifically with the F# when ascending the scale on the 3rd finger. Every time I get to it, my finger appears to be fully extended instead of the desired "downward curl", and because of this, the note rings out softer than the others.
The obvious answer is practice, practice, practice (which I am of course doing...) but maybe I'm just focusing on the wrong goal altogether. It feels like I'm spending a lot of time on this, when it took me only 2 days to master all the white keys of C major. Is this even an issue, or should I just hit the black ones harder to make up for my weaker attack?
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It sounds like your hand might not be far enough forward into the keys. Make sure that the key can be easily reached without stretching your finger out flat — the primary motion of the finger should be pressing down. (Don't move too far in or you will run into other issues, as here.)
As well, make sure to keep your arms/wrists high. Your wrists should be held flat above and just outside the edge of the keyboard, with your fingers curling down to meet the keys. Similar to the right side of this image, except I would even raise the wrist a little higher:
My answer to this question might also be of use: What can I do about my problems with piano scales which manifest in just one direction?
You need to do three things here; Shaping, where you raise the arm from the top of the forearm and brings the three finger above the F#; Forward shift into the key where you feel like your elbow is bringing the finger forward into the key and; gravity is what plays the key, not the finger. There is a fourth movement called the walking arm which comes from the elbow which sets up the thumb to play DOWN onto the G instead of curling the thumb under the palm which is a dual muscular pull and will both hinder your playing and cripple you later in life. I don't know why teachers teach flexing the thumb. After the elbow moves the hand out of the way so the thumb can play straight down, you can rotate the thumb down to the G without even using it. Rotation comes from the pronators and supinators. If your teacher doesn't know any of this it would be best to get another teacher for they will cripple you eventually.
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