The Organ Forum

 

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Allen Organs (505-B & ADC-6000), Frazee Pipe Organ (2/13 w/chimes),
Pump Organs (Estey, Sears & Roebuck, Mason & Hamlin, Chicago Cottage, Williams & Sons, Angelius, Cornish)
Pianos (Ivers sq. grand ca.1865, Ivers & Pond Upright-1929, Technics SX-PR600)

I am god awful slow, averaging only about 23 wpm. but I am accurate.I honestly never really learned to touch type, I don't exactly hunt and peck, but,I can't really look at the screen while I'm typing.

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Once you can tie your arms into a pretzel and your legs into a knot, you've got it under control

I didn't take the typing test, only because I've had a very long day on the organ bench and I'm feeling cranky. 

Anyway, I'm a very fast touch typist.  I taught myself how to do it - the only thing that slows me down are numbers (I sometimes have to look for them).

I also am very fast on a calculator.  I used to tally up a weekly payroll on a clunky old 10-key adding machine - the kind with the paper tape. 

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Soubasse32

Wiz-kid here on the computer keyboard.  No idea what my wpm's are, but I'm pretty fast.  I've been threatening to learn the Vierne Impromptu. 

Alas no guarantee of mastering Liszt's Feux follets.   And I haven't. 

I learned to touch type when I was in high school, and consequently typed most of my homework assignments.  I find it more efficient than writing by hand.  This skill was especially useful in university where I could type my lecture notes directly into the computer, and be looking at the lecturer instead of the screen. 

Is that with or without faults? Never learned to type and have no intention altough I work on pc almost all day. Fast enough I guess.

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Expert in non-working solutions

In high school typing class, I averaged 60 wpm and could out type both of the pianists in my class. I did not have access to a piano or organ (and had no musical training) until some 45 years later. I wish I could play as accurately as I type .... alas, not even close.

In most cases, proficiency at either keyboard is 80% practice and 20% innate talent (a classically trained organist once told me). What do you think about that statement?

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BOZ

Way back in the 60's.....yes I'm old....I took a "business typing" class in high school. (I think I was a sophomore)   I use to piss off the student teacher because I was typing around 90 wpm and I was faster then she was.  I had been taking piano for about 8 years and typing came very natural for me.  I still type (when I need to) 90-100 wpm with just a few errors.  I always thought that us keyboard folks just had better control over our fingers than other people.  Who knows.......

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"The Organ is in truth the grandest, the most daring,
the most magnificent of all instruments invented by human genius."

Yes, Don, you are correct.  I have been told as much by a professional medical transcriptionist.

I type 60+ WPM when not being tested and 40+ WPM under test conditions.

I recently checked my speed for a response on another board and it was 57 net wpm, 60 gross wpm, with 95% accuracy.

Even though I was following a College Prep curriculum in high school (graduated in 1955), I took 2 semesters of typing, at the end of which I was doing 50 net wpm (good enough to qualify for Civil Service back then).  I was the only boy in the classes and the fastest typist--the girls hated me!  I took typing because our family did not have a lot of money and I knew that I would not be able to pay someone to type my college papers for me; I was going to follow Engineering and I knew there would be a lot of papers; they didn't have to be typed, but I knew that neatness always counts even if they say it doesn't.  I have never regretted spending the time back then to become a reasonably-good touch typist.  It is a skill that has proved useful throughout my life.

I also learned to play the piano (not particularly well) as a child.  Between the piano and mechanical typewriters, I did develop some finger strength.  I do appreciate the newer keyboards that do not require as much strength, but I want the keys to MOVE.

David

I've not checked but I'm ultra fast....back in high school on a manual typewriter I could bang out over 100 words per minute.....boy that dates me!....so I'm guessing on a computer it is even faster.

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www.nycfarmboy.com
www.reuter822.com

forgot to mention...to the young folk on here.... TAKE A TYPING CLASS (well if they are still offered ;). Was one of the best classes i took in high school......it is a skill you will use the rest of your life so get good at it early.

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www.nycfarmboy.com
www.reuter822.com

NYCFarmboy:

forgot to mention...to the young folk on here.... TAKE A TYPING CLASS

You know, the 'young folk' these days only type with their thumbs!     (text messaging)

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Soubasse32

NYCFarmboy:

forgot to mention...to the young folk on here.... TAKE A TYPING CLASS (well if they are still offered ;). Was one of the best classes i took in high school......it is a skill you will use the rest of your life so get good at it early.

They call those classes Keyboarding now.  I tell all my students that my Typing class was one of the most useful classes that I ever took in high school.  I scored 46 WPM, not fast, but much faster than I write.

 

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Thank you

Jon Benignus
Houston, TX

Owner of a Wurlitzer Series 20 Organ
built circa 1945

NYCFarmboy:

I've not checked but I'm ultra fast....back in high school on a manual typewriter I could bang out over 100 words per minute.....boy that dates me!....so I'm guessing on a computer it is even faster.

Don't feel too bad, Farmboy. I was typing assignments for elementary school on a typewriter. My parents wouldn't get a computer back then. They couldn't afford it, and plus spending +$1000 for machine which could only do spreadsheets, word processing and DOS (or MACOS) games seemed like waste.

My typewriter was a bit advanced though. It had an LCD screen where you could type and edit a line of text, and after hitting enter would type out the line with a very memorable bang! bang! ba-bang! We could only afford that because my father returned to college, and got financial aid.

 I took a typing class in high school, and I'm glad I did. I was a painfully slow typer, and I hated it. Now in college any and all papers are required to be typed, no matter the length, in MLA format - ALWAYS or FAILURE. Some professors are a little more relaxed, others not so much. I had an Art History professor who would not accept the paper if there was the least bit of deviation from the format. Naturally I was apprehensive, but he was a good professor and I enjoyed the class and I got an A.

Soubasse, you'll have to define an age bracket. I hate cell phones, palm pilots, mp3 players, etc. I only have a cell phone because I was forced to get one out of convenience. I never use it accept for emergencies, and it sits in my room charged up, and almost $100 worth of minutes available on it. All these disposable, noisy, annoying, superfluous, and chintzy gadgets are rather obnoxious, let alone their minimalist design.

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First they came for the ABC consoles, then they came for the older consoles. When they finally got to the spinets, they were all gone.