adfjkls
Place the fingers of your left hand on the A, S, D and F keys and the
fingers of your right hand on the J, K, L, and ; keys. These are the called
the HOME keys. The basic idea of touch typing is that your fingers normally
rest on these keys and from this 'home' position you learn the relative
positions of all the other keys so that you can find them without looking
down at the keyboard.

You will notice that the keys on which your index fingers are resting, the F
and J keys, have a small ridge on the lower edge. This helps you to check
that the index fingers of each hand are in the right position without the
need to look down. With your fingers resting on the 'home' keys you should
find that both thumbs fall naturally over the space bar.
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adfjklrstu
The first lesson dealt only with the keys on which your fingers were
actually resting so there was no need to move them.

In this lesson the R, T and U keys are included which means you will need to
move them away from the 'home' keys.

To reach the U key use the index finger of your right hand. Move it over the
key, press and release the key and then move it back to the J key so that
you are back in the 'home' position.

Similarly the index finger of the left hand is used for the R and T keys.
Move your finger to the key, press and release it and then move back to the
F key so that you are back in the 'home' position.
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adeefiijklrstu
This lesson introduces the I and E keys.

For the I key you use the second finger of your right hand. Move this finger
to the key, press the key and then move it back to its 'home' position on
the K key. For the E key you use the second finger of your left hand, once
again returning it to its 'home' position on the D key.

You will notice that the E and I keys appear twice in the list above. This
is simply so that they will be chosen more often than the other keys so you
learn the new keys more quickly. In all subsequent lessons the new keys will
appear more than once for this reason.
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adefijklooppqqrstuww
You should now be getting the hang of things so I will introduce four new
keys in this lesson. These are th Q, W, O and P keys.

Reach the W key with the third finger of your left hand and the Q key with
the fourth finger of the same hand. Once again return your fingers to their
'home' position as soon as you have pressed the required key.

Similarly the O and P keys are reached with the third and fourth fingers of
the right hand.
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adefgghhijklopqrstuwyy
This lesson introduces the Y, G and H keys.

The G and H keys are reached with the index fingers of your left and right
hands respectively. Move your finger to the key, press it and then back to
its 'home' key.

The Y key is reached with the index finger of the right hand. Because of the
way the keys are offset this is a bigger stretch than the T key for the left
hand which is why I didn't introduce it earlier.
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abbbdefghjklnnnopqrstuvvvwy
This lesson introduces the V, N and B keys which are on the bottom row of
the keyboard.

The V key is reached with the index finger of the left hand and the N with
the index finger of the right hand.

Conventional teaching says that the B key should be reached with the index
finger of the left hand. I can find no valid reason for this and many
right-handed people actually use their right index finger for the B.

My advice is to use whichever you find most comfortable but having decided
which you prefer stick to that hand if you don't want speed to suffer.
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abcccdefghjklmmmnopqrstuvwy
This lesson introduces only two new keys, C and M. I am only introducing two
keys because once again I shall depart from conventional teaching.

The standard method for these keys is to use the second finger of the left
hand for C and the second finger of the right hand for M. In common with
many other typists who were not formally taught I use my index fingers for
these keys.

I suggest that you try both methods and decide for yourself which you
prefer. You should also try the following two lessons because they will
probably affect your choice.
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abcdefghjklmnopqrstuvwxxxyzzz
This lesson introduces the Z and X keys. As mentioned in the previous lesson
the conventional method is to use the second finger for the C key which
means that you use the third and fourth fingers for Z and X.

If you find it more comfortable to use your index finger for the C key you
will probably prefer to use the second finger for the X key and the third
finger for Z.

Once again I shall not be authoritive but leave the choice to you.
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abcdefghjklmnopqrstuvwxyz,,,...??
For the first time I shall now introduce some punctuation, the comma full
stop and question mark.

If you have chosen to use your index finger for the M key then you will use
your middle finger for the comma, your third finger for full stop and your
fourth finger for the question mark. If you use your middle finger for the M
then you will use your third finger for the comma and your fourth finger for
both the full stop and question mark.

The second method is the conventional teaching but it is really up to you to
use whichever you find most comfortable.
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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghjklmnopqrstuvwxxxyzzz
Now that you have learnt the position of the alphabet keys you need to learn
the use of the SHIFT key to obtain capital letters.

The theory is simple but it requires a lot of practice. Whichever hand you
require to press the required key you use the fourth finger of the other
hand for the SHIFT key.

For example, for a capital J you hold down the SHIFT key with the fourth
finger of your left hand, press the J key with the index finger of your
right hand and then release the SHIFT key. For a capital D you would use the
fourth finger of your right hand on the SHIFT key while you press the D key
with the second finger of your left hand.
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