The bottom row

The bottom row sits below the home keys and slightly to the right. The finger goes down, the hand does not.

a → z    s → x    d → c    f → v and b

This is the most awkward of the three rows: the finger has to curl. This is exactly where you are tempted to look down, or to grab a key with the wrong finger. Once a wrong finger becomes a habit, that key has to be relearned later, and that takes longer than getting it right from the start.

Z and X are rare letters, but C, V, B, N and M are everyday ones, so the row itself is anything but rare.

Practise

• Left little finger
• Left ring finger
• Left middle finger
• Left index finger
• Right index finger
• Right middle finger
• Right ring finger
• Right little finger

If you keep getting one letter wrong here, pick a pace at which that letter comes out right as well, and hold it for the whole exercise.

Touch typing lessons

Introduction

• Where speed comes fromFast typing is not about fast fingers but about overlapping movements and learned sequences.

Home position

• The home rowEight keys the hand never has to leave. Every keystroke starts here, and the finger comes back here.
• Home row wordsThe first real words, typed without moving a single finger off the home row.
• The extra index finger keysG and H are the only home row letters that make an index finger step aside.

Letters

• The top rowThe finger goes up and slightly left to the key above its home key, the hand stays where it is.
• The bottom rowThe most awkward of the three rows, and for that reason the one most worth drilling.
• The little finger keysThe little finger has the most keys and the least strength.
• All the letters togetherThree rows at once, in real words. This is where typing actually begins.
• Same-finger sequencesTwo letters typed with one and the same finger are the slowest thing in typing, and worth a drill of their own.
• One-handed wordsWords typed entirely with one hand. This is where the weaker hand shows itself.
• Alternating handsWords where the hands change over after every letter. This is where the rhythm comes from.

Capitals, punctuation and digits

• Capital lettersA capital always uses the Shift key on the opposite hand. That is the whole rule.
• PunctuationA comma or a full stop is part of the word, not something beside it.
• DigitsThe number row is far away and you cannot see it without looking down. The only thing that helps is a fixed finger for every digit.

Speed and accuracy

• Frequent letter pairsSpeed comes from a pair becoming one movement, not from a single keystroke getting faster.
• Frequent wordsA couple of hundred words cover a large part of what you will ever type. They are worth a drill of their own.
• An even rhythmAn even pace beats bursts and pauses, even when it feels slower.
• Accuracy before speedA wrong letter costs more than a slow one. In the game too.
• Whole sentencesA capital at the start, a full stop at the end, and everything you have learned put to work at once.

Touch typing