Home row keys and finger placement

What the home row is

On a QWERTY keyboard the home row is the middle row of letters. Left pinky through left index rest on A S D F. Right index through right pinky rest on J K L ;. F and J have small raised bumps so your index fingers can find home without looking. If you remember only one placement rule, remember that: bumps under the index fingers, eyes on the screen.

The first chapter of the keydrills course is nothing but this row. It is boring on purpose. Until home is automatic, every other key is a guess.

QWERTY finger chart

Each finger owns a column, except the index fingers, which own two. The chart below is the standard English QWERTY map keydrills uses for its on-screen guide. Other layouts (QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak, Colemak) keep the same finger logic and move the letters; pick yours in Settings and the 3D keyboard follows.

Always press a key with its assigned finger, even when a neighbor feels faster. Crossing over feels quicker for a day and caps your speed for years, because the overlapping motions collide once you try to go past hunt-and-peck pace.

The opposite-hand Shift rule

Capitals use the Shift key on the opposite side from the letter. Left pinky holds Left Shift for letters the right hand types (H, J, U, I…). Right pinky holds Right Shift for letters the left hand types (F, D, E, R…). Using the same-side Shift is the most common “I can type, but capitals are clumsy” bug. The Shift & punctuation chapter drills it until it is boring.

Posture that makes the map work

• Sit tall, feet flat, screen at eye height about an arm’s length away.
• Elbows bent near 90°, relaxed at your sides — not winged out.
• Wrists floating above the keys, not planted on the desk while you type.
• Fingers curved, as if holding a small apple. Flat fingers miss home.
• Shoulders down. Tension in the neck is the enemy of the pinkies.

Mistakes that look like a bad keyboard

Looking down to confirm a key. Glance once if you are lost, then look back up before you press — the on-screen keyboard in every lesson is there so you do not need the hardware as a reference. Resting on the wrong home keys (index fingers on D and K, or on G and H) silently shifts the whole map. Using the index finger for everything on the bottom row is why B, N, and M stay slow. Check the chart, then drill the real finger in practice.

Keep reading

• How to learn touch typing — Home row, fingering, accuracy-first practice, and a two-to-four-week schedule.
• How to type faster — Raise WPM by cleaning accuracy, rhythm, and weak keys — not by trying harder.
• What is a good typing speed — WPM explained, how keydrills scores a test, and realistic speed benchmarks.
• Typing.com and keybr alternatives — An honest comparison of keydrills, Typing.com, keybr, and Monkeytype.
• Typing speed statistics — Averages, percentiles, error rates and records from published research, every figure cited.
• Best keyboards for learning to touch type — Seven honest picks and the four things that matter: layout, F and J bumps, key travel, wrist position.