Typing Practice: The Home Row Keys

The Home Keys

• 1

  Rest your fingers of your left hand on the home row in this order:

  Pinky: A

  Ring: S

  Middle: D

  Index: F

  Thumb: Space bar

• 2

  Place the fingers on your right hand in this order:

  Thumb: Space bar

  Index: J

  Middle: K

  Ring: L

  Pinky: ;

• 3

  Begin by typing the letters "fdsa" over and over, saying the letters as you type them.

• 4

  When you feel that you are familiar with the letters and their positions, try typing the following set of characters:

  afd fa fas afs df dds aas fads fsa ssf fda ffs sfa saf sad sda ssa dd ds daf aaf sfd fds sa af ff ads sf sads sd dsa fd aa ad dda asd as ffd ss das dafs fad asf aad da adf ssd

• 5

  Continue practicing until you have no errors and can finish the sequence in under 60 seconds.

• 6

  Now type the keys "jkl;" many times, saying the names as you type.

• 7

  When you feel that you are familiar with the keys, go on to the following typing practice, which includes letters from the left and right hands:

  all; aja flask lsd la jal fall as; lass jass ad afls ; sass flasks ads ad; adj a flaks flak sad fad slad salsa all salk lad da kafka al; fads ask as salads dj als slads al sf

• 8

  Now you need to add the letters G and H of the home row. The G is pressed by the left-hand index finger and the H is pressed by the right-hand index finger. Practice typing "gh" several times while saying the letters aloud.

• 9

  Practice typing the following sequence of letters, which includes all of the home row letters:

  salads gaff lags ha gag ah half lash flash had adds fagas flag flags has salad saga faga shall flask hash jag sagas gash glass jags flasks kafka gas glad halls galla dash hassal