The home row

Notice how the fingers split in the middle. The left hand owns four keys and the right hand owns four, with the index fingers sitting next to each other in the centre. That gap between the two index fingers is the boundary of the keyboard, and once you can feel where it is you can always find your way back.

1. Find the bumps on F and J. Put your index fingers on them. This is the fastest way to orient your hands without looking down.
2. Let the other fingers drop. They should land on A, S, D and K, L and the semicolon naturally. If they do not, slide your hands rather than bending your fingers.
3. Curve your fingers. Flat fingers make you press keys with the tips of your nails and slow you down. A relaxed, slightly curved hand with the knuckles up is faster and lasts longer.
4. Float your wrists. Resting your wrists on the desk is a common habit and a bad one. The desk is for your forearms, not your hands.
5. Keep your elbows in. If your arms are splayed out to the sides, the reach to K and J becomes a stretch rather than a movement.
6. Type the space bar with a thumb. It is the most pressed key on the keyboard, and moving a finger down to it costs more than it seems.

I keep looking down at the keyboard

That is expected in the first session and it goes away faster than people think. A useful trick is to cover the keyboard with a sheet of paper and type from memory, then uncover it and check which keys you got wrong. Almost everyone finds the gap is much smaller than they expected.

My little fingers are the weak ones

They usually are, and that is normal, because they have the least work to do and the least practice. Practise the pairs A S and L ; on their own for a couple of minutes and they catch up quickly.

I press the wrong key next to the right one

That is a position problem, not a memory problem, and no amount of staring at the keyboard fixes it. Put your hands down, feel for the bumps, and press the drill again. If the same two keys give you trouble every time, mark them with tape.

My hands hurt after a session

You are pressing too hard. Typing should need roughly the force of a firm handshake, no more, and a resting hand should be visibly relaxed between keystrokes. If your forearms ache, shorten the sessions rather than pushing through, and let the desk carry your arms rather than your wrists.

When you can type the drill without looking, with few errors and without thinking about which finger is which, move on to theindex finger lesson. The full sequence, with the assignments for every stage, is on thetyping lessons page, and the learn typing guide explains the same method in more depth.

You can also check how the new position is going with a normaltyping test. A slow score with a high accuracy is a good sign at this stage, because accuracy is what the home row is for.