The little finger keys

The little finger is the weakest and shortest finger, yet its column is the widest. On the left it owns Q, A and Z; on the right P, the semicolon and the apostrophe, plus every edge key: Shift, Enter and Backspace.

q a z    p ; '

Because the edge keys live here too, this finger is on duty in almost every sentence. All the more reason to get its movement right: the finger reaches for the key on its own, the palm does not rotate along with it and the other fingers stay home.

When the little finger tires, the reason is almost always that the wrists are resting on the desk and the hand cannot move freely. Lift the wrists and the work is done by the arm and shoulder rather than by one finger.

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

The drill mixes both hands, because that is how these keys turn up in real text.

Touch typing lessons

Introduction

• Where speed comes fromFast typing is not fast fingers but 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 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, 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 with one and the same finger are the slowest thing in typing, and worth a drill of their own.
• One-handed wordsWords that come out entirely with one hand. This is where the weaker hand shows itself.
• Alternating handsWords where the hands change over after almost every letter. This is where the rhythm comes from.

Capitals, punctuation and digits

• Capital lettersA capital always uses the shift 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 digit row is far away and out of sight. The only thing that helps is the right column.

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 most of everything 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 sentencesCapital at the front, full stop at the end, and every part working at once.

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