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Just something fun to ask, how fast can you type and do you think your piano playing has helped in that regard?

I've played piano since I was a young kid, I took a typing class in high school and it seemed to really help.

I've been tested at about 75-80 WPM. I type with the "proper" fingering and I don't need to look at the keyboard.

I wanted to take typing in high school, but my father, who was really "old school," said I would always have somebody to do that for me.

Well, I did have secretaries for quite a few years, but as computers became more and more common, I decided to teach myself typing using the "Typing Tutor" computer program in the late 1980s. I had a law partner who started at the same time I did. After around 6 months, I was typing comfortably at around 60 words a minute. He could barely scratch out 20. I don't think there's any question that the dexterity I developed playing the piano my entire life had everything to do with my typing speed.

I do all of my own typing now, and I probably type 70-80 words per minute.

I'm not exactly sure what my WPM is, but I think 60 WPM is my regular typing speed (without hurrying). I taught myself proper typing with correct fingering and not looking at the keyboard when I was 10 years old.

Taking up the piano as an adult, I wanted to believe that this typing skill would help me in piano.

...It seems that it did not

For one thing, unless you're forever trapped in five-finger positions, your fingers don't have a specific key assigned to them unlike when typing on a regular keyboard. The keys constantly change. You also don't need to press multiple keys at the same time, except for the 'shift','Alt', or 'Ctrl + Alt + Del' at most. Unless you're still using an antique typewriter, you don't need to place much pressure on your fingers. There are a lot of differences.

Typing courses were available in middle school when I was growing up. I was 11 when I learned, and I'd already been playing piano for years.

I had just one semester, reaching 65 wpm on manual typewriters that were old even then. Just one other student did quite so well, and I have no idea if she played piano. (Emily Sorrentino, are you out there?)

I can still type in the 100 wpm range, but computer keyboards aren't optimal for speed, at least for me, because of relatively little tactile feedback. The fastest keyboard I ever experienced was the IBM Mag Card II typewriter, a proto-word processor of the 1970s that was based on the Selectric but felt positively turbocharged when one was typing into the machine's memory.

FWIW, I was always typing a lot during some very lengthy absences from piano (several years at a time). I do think that typing helped me maintain dexterity and control to a significant extent.

Steven

I've been touch-typing for decades, and I don't think it's helped my piano fingering at all

I don't know which is the chicken and which is the egg, but my typing speed, when I was a typist (before the computer age) was about 140 wpm, and I've played piano off and on since I was a child. I never won a piano contest, but I won a tv by typing back in the dark ages!

I type around 120 - 140 wpm - but I've been typing on computer keyboard way before I started piano. I don't know the other way round, but unfortunately it doesn't help playing the piano

I only type about 60 WPM. (Just took a test)

Though, I only use my index+middle fingers when I type, so I'm giving myself an handicap.

Tell me this..People who type a lot get carpal tunnel don't they? But pianists don't, or do they? I think its knowing how to use the wrists because I was a typist and I had to stop typing but when I play piano my brain gets tired before my hands, etc.

Not necessarily. I'm sure that of the people who have typed full-time all their lives, only a small percentage have been affected by RSIs.


I think that an RSI is possible from any activity that's done repetitively, and that "knowing how" to do it correctly is the very thing that goes a long way toward to inoculating one against such dangers.

Steven

I play better than I type, thank God. I'm a "dyslexic" typist - I mix letters up between the right and left hands. I don't do that at the piano.

Part of being a good typist is your internal lexicon and your ability to spell. When you merge that with piano proficiency, then you're going somewhere. Also, having to type 20-page essays in college helps with typing speed.

I took a typing class in high school and I was in the 40 wpm range. Several kids who typed faster all played piano, but not as advanced as I was. I think it's their spelling and verbal skills that got them to that speed. After college, I tested my speed again and it went up to 90 wpm, and over 100 wpm for short sentences.

I used to be a good typist, but my typing speed has been decreasing since I started using a voice recognition software.

At the moment I think there's a tie between my typing and my playing.

I've been typing since high school (ages ago) and once tested at 75wpm. Don't see any relationship to playing the piano execept maybe fingering. Marimoro you really hit the nail on the head.

Frycek I sometimes reverse notes at my lesson - don't know if being left-handed has anything to do with it. I use to get small d's and b's mixed up in grade school.

This thread makes me wish I played the piano for as long as I've typed. Wishing won't make it so - but I really enjoy the learning process and am giving it my best.

Like a few others I can type in the 120-140wpm range. Being a software developer I also keep an eye on my coding productivity, which is around 80-85wpm (curse all those funky characters).

I've been typing a lot longer than playing the piano and while I'll venture to say that the limberness and dexterity gained from typing has helped with some speed on the piano, it hasn't necessarily translated to the level of control I need for bigger yet more accurate keystrokes at the piano.

If only they had an inline spell checker for melody or chord mistakes. lol

RXB

I thought office workers were notorious for rsi's Sotto Voce.

I type more in the 100 wpm range, but that hasn't really improved since high school.

I wonder if people add numbers to their wpm in the same way that they inflate their measurements. Either speeds around and above 100 wpm are a lot more common than in days of yore, or internet speed is like internet inches.

Steven

I was a secretary for years and I touch type a lot faster than 100 WPM. I believe the piano helped my typing a lot, (good posture, fast fingers), but I also feel it hindered my piano playing, (stiff wrists).

RX I'd like to add counting/rhythm to the spell check idea - wonder what it would be called if it existed.