Butterflies: Rami Bar-Niv

Pianist, teacher, and composer Rami Bar-Niv continues his journey into piano technique and today’s post is the fifth in the series for this blog. Many thanks to those of you who’ve written to tell us how much you have been enjoying these articles. To browse all the guest posts on this site, click here.

The fifth pillar of my five main piano-playing-technique pillars is the butterfly technique.

OK, so we can’t fly… but we can use this technique to our advantage in our piano playing. In this technique we flap the hand vertically out of the wrist like a butterfly’s wing. It is great for double octaves, double sixth, and chords, executed as light and fast staccato scales and arpeggios or executed as fast repetitions. It is also good for repeating single notes with no change of fingers in staccato or in legato, fast or slow.

Many people wave “bye-bye” using this way of flapping the hand vertically from the wrist, though not the queen of England; her waving was more like the rotation-technique movement.

The following is quoted from my book The Art of Piano Fingering: Traditional, Advanced, and Innovative.

“When there are fast repeated single notes played with one finger, finger 3 (or 2) is the most recommended. This helps the balance of the hand. Further help can be obtained when supporting finger 3 (or 2) with the thumb touching the inner part of the finger behind the nail knuckle.

A legato of the same note with the same finger is done without letting go of the key surface, similarly to the use of the foot on the pedal without letting go, just moving it up and down constantly touching the pedal. A more advanced way of doing this legato is by partially releasing the key (not letting it return all the way up) which is similar to partially releasing the pedal.

For slow and legato repetition of notes, we should use a small vertical wrist movement as well as a small lateral one towards or away from the fall board while slightly changing the placement of the finger on the key. If it is just two or three notes being repeated, the wrist should move a little up and inward (toward the fall board) while the finger moves slightly inward on the key.”

“For fast repetition of notes we should use the butterfly technique: with every note the hand moves up and down from the wrist as if it is a wing of a butterfly.

For single groups of two, three, sometimes four, or even five notes/octaves/chords, the wrist moves up and inward (toward the fall board), and the finger also moves inward on the key with every note/octave/chord, while flapping the hand vertically from the wrist. These movements should be small, especially in order to allow for speed.

For prolonged fast repetition in repeated groups of two, three, and sometimes four notes/octaves/chords, as before, the wrist moves up and inward (toward the fall board), and the finger also moves inward on the key with every note in the first group. Then in the next group, the wrist moves back down and outward (away from the fall board), and the finger also moves outward with every note: all the while flapping the hand vertically from the wrist with every note.

The wrist moves a little bit in/up with each note, and a little bit out/down with each note, according to the number of notes in the group. This can be done in groups of two in/up, two out/down; three in/up, three out/down; and four in/up, four out/down. All these movements are very small and do not at all reach the highest or the lowest points of the wrist movements.

The wrist movements of in/up and out/down over the keys, which are done according to the number of notes in the group, do not necessarily have to be grouped according to the rhythmic grouping of the music. The movements can have their own grouping sequences starting on any note of the rhythmic group, the first, the second, the third, etc.”

“There are other techniques for playing fast non-legato double octaves:

1. Flapping the entire forearm and hand (all the way from the elbow) as one unit that moves up and down. This is very powerful, but could be harmful to the hands.

2. Pushing the forearm and hand into the keys as if there is something behind the elbow pushing it forward and releasing, back and forth.

3. Slightly dipping the wrist with each played octave.

4. The grabbing technique where the fingers close into the octave keys while facing each other and seizing the other keys between the two octave keys like a pair of tongs holding a block of ice.

However, for the fastest non-legato double octaves with a little less power, there is the butterfly technique, where the hand moves from the wrist like a butterfly’s wing.

There are two schools of practicing and acquiring this technique:

a.) When the hand is up, keep the octave distance between fingers 1 and 5 unchanged like a claw. Here, opinions vary regarding the position of the three middle fingers. Some say to bend them quite tightly as to get them out of the way, and others say to keep them unbent.

b.) When the hand is up, let all the fingers relax and flex naturally.”

Often, some of these techniques can be combined. We should be able to alternate smoothly between the various techniques, play different techniques simultaneously in both hands, and at the most advanced levels we should be able to combine more than one technique in a single hand simultaneously.

The combination of the butterfly technique and the finger-grabbing technique is very effective for double octaves, other dyads, or chords in fast scales, chromatic scales, or arpeggios.

For younger players and/or people with small hands, I recommend practicing double sixths first.

In general, and in particular for this technique to be effective, I recommend sitting relatively low when playing the piano – forearms are more or less parallel to the floor. This way, we put less strain on the neck, as it reduces bending the head down to look at the hands and keyboard. It also makes vertical wrist movements easier and injury-free. However, when playing from a music score, I recommend sitting a little higher, as that makes a better eyes-score-hands triangle for reading the music.

There are additional variants and nuances to these techniques, but the five pillars of piano-playing technique, which I covered in my last five articles on this wonderful blog, are the most important ideas.

Bye-bye for now.

Read Rami’s previous articles in this series by clicking on the links below:

The Music of The Wrists: Rami Bar-Niv

The Magic of Wrist Circles: Rami Bar-Niv

The Beauty of the Rotation Technique: Rami Bar-Niv

Grabbing: Rami Bar-Niv