THE SINGLE HANDED MALTRON KEYBOARD
...continued
There is a hidden advantage to having a single handed keyboard. Because you will be using only one hand, you will also be using only one side of your brain. That makes learning easier because messages from one side of the brain to the other sometimes get confused and this results in keying errors.
Now let's talk about the exercises in the manual. Because of the letter layout, it would have been possible to give you the words and phrases to key without any fingering exercises. We've tried that road and we found that it slowed down learning rates and keying was not as accurate. So take special care to do those well. In fact I'd say that if you are pressed for time and have to learn to use the keyboard in the least possible time, then do the fingering and the common word exercises in each unit, rather than the words and phrases. But remember that there is a trade off in doing that. It will take a long time to develop a worthwhile speed and you will not key as accurately as you could.
Here are some instructions about how you should place your keyboard and how you should sit. Because you will be keying with only one hand, it is very important that you should do everything possible to avoid tiring that hand. So these instructions are most important.
The keyboard has a very small downward tilt to one side. This is to avoid wrist ache. You should arrange the keyboard so that the corner where the thumbs are, touches the lower edge of the table and the bottom edge of the keyboard slants at 35° upward, away from you.
Now let's talk about your position, the way you should be seated. The main thing is to have four right angles. 1) at your elbows, 2) at your hip joint, 3) at your knees, 4) at your ankles. This means that your back, thighs and calves will be in straight lines, and your feet should be flat on the floor. Your chair should have a backrest which supports your back and it should be height adjustable. You need to sit high enough at your table so that you can maintain that 90° right angle at your elbow. If you have a chair with arms it will help to reduce strain if you can comfortably rest just the tip of your elbow on the edge of the arm. Then your arm could slope down about 10° to the finger tip position on the 'home' row. Do not rest any other part of your arm. Only just the tip of the elbow. If you maintain this posture you will be well able to key for long periods of time without feeling undue physical strain.
Do be sure to avoid any strain at all. Do be sure to relax your arm frequently. Here's how to do that. Just drop your arm to your side and shake. Shake right from the shoulder blades through the arm and elbow down into the wrist and the fingers. Make sure that the blood really gets moved around right to the finger tips. You are reminded to do this in the manual, but do it more frequently than that.
It's never a good thing to risk overtiring that keying arm. Tired muscles take a long time to recover. So at first limit your keying to about two hours at a time. But you can spend long periods with your fingers on the keyboard just moving them lightly on to keys without depressing the keys at all. That will help imprint the positions into the pathways that you need to develop from your eyes to your finger tips.
There are two things we ask you not to do while you learn to use this keyboard. FIRST: Please do not try to correct any errors that you make. If you do stop, you will break the pattern of your keying, so just carry on. Of course try to key correctly. SECOND: Do not look at your finger tips or the keyboard while you are keying. You may 'steal' a glance now and again if you need to, but if you studiously keep your eyes on the copy, you'll soon be in the habit of not looking at all. We hope you'll enjoy your training. Remember learning to do anything is the hardest part. Once you've worked through the manual you can enjoy the freedom that comes with easy keying. Good luck in this.
Yours sincerely
Lillian G Malt
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