Updated 19 September 2026
How to touch type: 4 steps to master it in a week
Four steps. One keyboard row at a time. A test before you move on.
Step 1 — the home row: A S D F G with the left hand, ; L K J H with the right, thumbs on the space bar. Step 2 — the top row. Step 3 — the bottom row. Step 4 — capitals, shortcuts, and real typing.
Every finger reaches to its key and comes straight back home. You do not start a new step until you can type the last one with your hands covered. One step a day. Four steps in a week.
From the writer: I did a 6-week typing course in 1 week
In 2019 I joined an MS Office course in Bangladesh. The typing part ran for six to eight weeks. I finished it in one week, using exactly the method on this page.
Two weeks in, the lab asked me to teach it. So I ended up training students who had joined before me — people still working through the weeks I had already finished.
Nothing here is theory. This is what I was taught, what I used, and what I then taught other people.
Step 1 — the home row
Feel the two small bumps on F and J. Every keyboard has them. They let your index fingers find home without looking.
Rest your fingers here:
- Left hand: A S D F
- Right hand: J K L ;
- Both thumbs: the space bar
One rule above all others: after every key, the finger comes straight back home. Reach, press, return. Your hand stays still. Only fingers move.
Ten keys today, and nothing else. Start from the little finger of each hand — the left goes A S D F G, then the right comes back ; L K J H. Both hands work the same way, so you learn one pattern, not two.
- Type
ASDFGthen;LKJH, again and again - Mix them up:
AF SD GJ KL - Then real words:
LADASKFLASKSALADGLASSHALFSHALLGASH
Do not touch any other key today. Every other key is found from this row. If this row is weak, everything you build on it is weak.
Cover your hands so you cannot see the keys. Ask someone to call out ten letters from this row and type them. No one around? Make up your own words and type those.
Pass mark: no pausing. If you stop to think about a key, that key is still in your head, not in your fingers. Do this step again tomorrow. That is normal, not failure.
Why test instead of just practising more? Because being tested builds memory much better than repeating. In a well-known study, people who read something four times remembered 40% of it a week later. People who read it once and then tested themselves remembered 61%.
Step 2 — the top row
Ten more keys. Same rule: start from the little finger of each hand. The left goes Q W E R T, then the right comes back P O I U Y.
Reach up, press, come straight back down. Say it out loud while you practise if it helps: reach, press, return.
- Type
QWERTthenPOIUY, again and again - Mix the two rows:
QA WS ED RF TG - Then real words:
TYPEQUIETPOWERWRITEYOURREPORTOUTPUT
Cover your hands again. This time test both rows — home and top. Twenty letters, called out or made up, with no pausing.
Pass and you have earned the last row. Pause, and repeat this step tomorrow.
Step 3 — the bottom row
The last ten keys, reaching down this time. The left goes Z X C V B, then the right comes back / . , M N.
This row is the hardest. Your little fingers are weak and have never done this before. Go slower than you think you need to.
- Type
ZXCVBthen/.,MN, again and again - Mix all three rows:
ZA XS CD VF BG - Then real words:
ZEBRAVOICENUMBERMAXIMUMCOMBINE
Cover your hands. Test all three rows together — twenty letters from anywhere on the keyboard, no pausing.
When you can do that, you know the whole alphabet by touch. The letters now live in your fingers.
Step 4 — capitals, shortcuts and real typing
Capitals first. Shift is pressed by the hand opposite the letter, always with the little finger. Capital A is right Shift plus left little finger.
Practise with this line. Typing teachers have used it for over a hundred years because it holds every letter of the alphabet:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.- Then again with every word capital, so every word needs a Shift:
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog.
Then six shortcuts. Hold Ctrl with your left little finger (Cmd on a Mac):
- Ctrl+C copy · Ctrl+V paste · Ctrl+X cut
- Ctrl+A select all · Ctrl+Z undo · Ctrl+Y redo
Undo and redo matter most. They are what let you type fast and fix mistakes without fear.
Then stop drilling and start typing. Spend the rest of the week writing real things — emails, notes, messages — with the new method only. Hands covered. Slow is fine.
You can write a full message without looking down once. Not fast. Just without looking.
The month that makes you a master
A week puts the keyboard in your hands. A month makes it automatic. Three rules:
Use it for everything
Every time you go back to the old way, you feed the old habit.
Accuracy, not speed
Hold 97% and speed will come on its own. Fast and wrong is the harder habit to fix.
Drill your worst keys
Not your favourite ones. Our typing test shows you the six that cost you.
You will get slower first. For two to four weeks you will type slower than you did before. One learner logged 15 wpm in week one, 22 in week two, and passed his old speed in week three. This is where most people quit. It is also proof that it is working.
Drills are right for the first week and wrong for the month after it. That is what Pew Pew Type is for — words are alien ships, and you type them to shoot them down. Same order as this guide: home row, then top, then bottom.
The 1888 bet that proved this works
On 25 July 1888, two men sat down at typewriters in Cincinnati. Each put $250 of his own money on the table. They typed for ninety minutes.
Frank McGurrin won, at about 96 words a minute against Louis Traub's 77.
Both men used all ten fingers. There was only one difference between them. McGurrin had moved the keyboard into his hands. Traub still kept it in his eyes.
That is the whole skill. Four steps away.
Related
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to learn touch typing?
About a week to learn where every key is — four steps, one a day — and about a month of daily use before it becomes automatic. Two to three months to comfortably pass 50 to 60 words per minute. Your speed drops below your old method for the first two to four weeks while you replace the habit, and that dip is where most people give up.
Which finger presses which key?
Left hand: little finger on A, also Q and Z; ring on S, also W and X; middle on D, also E and C; index on F, also G, R, T, V and B. Right hand: index on J, also H, Y, U, N and M; middle on K, also I and comma; ring on L, also O and full stop; little finger on the semicolon, also P and slash. Both thumbs press only the space bar, and Shift is always pressed by the hand opposite the letter.
How do I actually memorise the keyboard?
One row at a time, with a test between each row. Learn the home row and nothing else on day one, drilling outwards from the little finger of each hand: A S D F G with the left, then semicolon L K J H with the right. On day two, test yourself cold before learning anything new: hide your hands and have someone call out twenty letters. Only move to the top row if you get all twenty without pausing. Repeat for the bottom row. Being tested builds a stronger memory than drilling again, even though drilling feels more productive.
Why can't I stop looking at the keyboard?
Because looking works, and it works immediately. Remove the option rather than relying on willpower: put a cloth over your hands, or type with the lights off. Also check that you genuinely memorised the row before you started drilling it. Most people who cannot stop looking are looking because they do not yet know where the keys are, which is a memory problem rather than a discipline one.
What are the bumps on the F and J keys for?
They let your index fingers find the home row by feel, so both hands land correctly without looking. Nobody knows who first added them. No patent or standard records the decision, and Apple put the bumps on D and K for about two decades before switching to F and J in 1998.
Can I learn touch typing as an adult?
Yes, and often faster than a child, because you understand why the method works and can be deliberate about it. The only advantage children have is fewer habits to unlearn. What predicts typing speed is having learned a system and actively trying to type faster, not age or years spent at a keyboard.
Should I learn the number row too?
Not in the first week. Numbers are the least frequent keys and the hardest reach, and adding them early is a common reason people stall. Finish the three letter rows, capitals and the shortcuts first, then add numbers the following week using the same test-before-you-advance rule.