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One thing that I realize while listening to great recordings from other pianists is their ability to give each hand a different 'volume'. I believe this ability to create a 'hierarchy' between hands is what produces a much more pleasant sound.

Are there any exercises to help me develop the ability to play each hand with a different volume?

Thanks

Chuan Chang talks a lot about hands separate practice in his book, Fundamentals of Piano Practice. Doing so builds hand independence and control. Perhaps it might help you for controlling volume between the hands. I know its done wonders for me in control and accuracy in my playing.

fe2008, it's beyond hands. It's every finger. One easy way to practice these are via scales. On one hand, practice accenting every other note.

Using both hands practice scales with the other hand having a contrasting dynamic.

Also see how many gradations of dynamics you can muster. There's more than you can imagine.

There's a million exercises one can do with dynamics using everything from scales, arpeggios to Hanon or some short piece of music you like.

In the end it's all about hand and finger independence.

One thing that helped me was to exaggerate the difference - try to play ppp in one hand and fff in the other.

I also find that if I can feel / hear what I want I can do it but it's much harder to logically control.

time and practice

thank you

Try simple 5 finger exercises, cresc from p to f RH, dim from f to p LH, vice versa, any way you think of, unison, contrary motion etc.

Playing the notes is simple, so you can concentrate on managing the volume in each hand. As jazzwee says, it's each finger.

Also, practicing scales (going on from 5 finger exercises) with different dynamics is not only useful technically, it makes them more interesting!

Hanon exercises are great for this because it trains your fingers to play all at the same volume which will help you to develop your dynamics in your playing.

When playing scales or hanon exercises set yourself a task of playing ascending loud and descending quiet and then change it play it again but play it loud for the first half, then quiet then back to loud this will help you gain better control also for improving your dynamics and expression when you play.